"While it may seem like the gap between common and rare classes is unsurpassable, the commonality of them is actually a boon in some cases, since they can share skill or trait unlock conditions or even class evolution conditions whereas rare class users must rely mostly on themselves."

-The Advantage of Commonality, by Florence Jameson

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When we all woke up the next morning, the first order of business was the all-too familiar conversation addressing our most recent fuck-up and how to make sure doesn't happen again, though from the lingering fear still in everyone's eyes, including my own, I doubted anyone would drop their guard before we know for a fact that the fight is over ever again. But even with everyone reassuring themselves and the rest of us that we will all be more cautious we still needed to decide when we were going to attempt the actual dungeon boss.

I was of the mind that the salamander was actually easy and it was only our stupidity that put us at any risk, and with only eight days until the tutorial ends, I wanted to move on to the actual boss as soon as possible, a sentiment that Jason agreed with. Meanwhile Jackson wanted to grind the salamander for a minimum of three days before trying the actual boss, and a still shaken Leo wanted to at least spend today grinding it out to confirm that it was just lack of caution that was the problem and we weren't overestimating ourselves.

After a bit of discussion we decided to try the salamander once more to gauge its actual difficulty but tentatively plan on not challenging the main boss until tomorrow at the earliest, which would give us one week to grind it before the tutorial ends. Once again we easily made it through the regular mobs with an ease that would have stunned us a few weeks ago and we quickly found ourselves in front of the purple gate. After a quick gear/resource check, we went down the sloped path and to our relief, but not surprise, we found what seemed to be an identical salamander eyeing us from the other end of the cavern before readying a charge with the same disregard.

Since our previous plan was effective right up until the end, we more or less repeated it, with Leo giving a shout and a charge down the middle so that it would have less momentum for its charge while the rest of us trailed behind and flanked it, and just as planned, Leo successfully stopped it for less stamina than the first fight and we were able to wreak havoc on it while it was focusing on/being blocked by Leo. Unlike last time we didn't let up our assault when it stopped moving, and were rewarded with a flash of light and a salamander that while fully healed, was still pinned and being attacked from all sides, and therefore unable to do any real damage to any of us before falling with a frustrated roar.

Congratulations, you have defeated the Sub-boss of the first floor of the Crystal Caverns dungeon, the Onyx Cave Salamander and gained 30 EXP

With the message as a cue to stop our attacks, we all caught our breath and waited for it to dissipate while checking our injuries and resource levels. As a group we were uninjured minus a few small scratches and personally I had most of my stamina and around half of my mana, with me and Leo being the only ones to have really used any of our pools as the whole fight took about half of Leo's stamina both in activity and using his skill to block the heavier hits. Nonetheless the fight itself was fairly easy and as safe as fighting a giant magical reptile can reasonably be, though Jackson and Leo still wanted to spend the rest of the day grinding for loot before attempting the main boss just in case. Since me and Jason weren't really in a position to argue with both of our frontliners, we just accepted it and instead went to examine the now-dissolved miniboss for loot, which upon first glance was another floor steak, some scaly leather, and a blue orb that turned into a pillow.

Name: Salamander Steak Rarity: Common

Name: Onyx Salamander Hide Rarity: Uncommon

Name: Travel Pillow Rarity: Common Requirements: N/A Effects: Minor increased softness, Minor self-cleaning

Once we all saw the pillow and read what it did we all simultaneously reached to our sore necks as the bloodlust in the air rose far beyond what it was when we were fighting the salamander as we all prepared for the fight of our lives. One intense rock paper scissors tournament later, Jackson victoriously held the pillow, along with the hide that we made him carry back as punishment for winning since no one wanted the floor steak, though I was slightly more tempted than last time since I was in a better state of mind to examine it, and while dusty, it looked like it came right out of an anime. And if you told me that you've never wanted to try manga meat then you are a liar.

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Upon returning to our cave and depositing the hide in the pile of crafting materials and other items that we should keep but don't currently use, we all settled into our usual routines as we waited for the dungeon to reset, me meditating while the others practiced their skills either on trees or nearby turkeys to keep our food stocked up. Quickly getting into the now familiar feeling of meditation I was able to pull and integrate the crystal energy far quicker and more efficiently than before, though even with the added efficiency that practice brought I could feel that each individual shard of energy did less than when I had first started absorbing the energy, but I still thought it would be better to continue absorbing crystal essence as opposed to earth as I didn't think I would be able to gain an attunement and I figured that natural sources of crystal energy would be rarer than earth energy so I wanted to take advantage of it while I could.

After waiting a few hours for everyone to recover we re-entered the dungeon and fell back into the routine that we had gotten accustomed to of clearing out the dungeon, with the added miniboss fight at the end and we managed to clear it three more times that day and managed to get more familiar with the salamander and reduce the amount of resources used to kill it. We also managed to gain two more hides and floor steak, one more healing crystal, and two uncommon loot orbs that turned into a canteen that could refill itself with mana and a dagger that gave no stats but was very sharp, the canteen wasn't taken by anyone and the dagger was given to Jason. In addition to the loot I also found out that my crystal constructs lasted far longer in the dungeon than they would outside so I changed my style when fighting the mobs to using a crystal spear that I would create upon entry, making it so that I barely used any mana in non-boss fights and the extra frontline support meant that Leo and Jackson also saved on their stamina. In total we got around 1000 exp each, and we managed to clear it safely enough that we were confident in facing the final boss getting our first clear of the dungeon tomorrow.

The next day as we were all gathered by the fire and eating tasteless meat, we discussed our plans for the day, namely the fact that we intended to fight the final boss and how we needed to remember what happened with the mini boss and not drop our guard until we got the system message. Aside from that, we also made the assumption that we would likely be fighting a different type of creature than what we have seen so far, so we were unable to make any specific strategies and instead focused on making plans for a variety of situations that we thought might happen, though none of us were skilled enough to be particularly flexible so it was mostly just talking about how to time our skills with each other so we don't hinder the group.

With as much preparation done as we can reasonably do, we entered the dungeon and cleared it with practiced competency until we started down the green pathway and ended up in front of the gate that was now open since we had cleared the miniboss. Carefully making our way down the path that seemed to get dimmer and darker as the crystals changed from a vibrant emerald to a deeper and murkier shade, and after a couple minutes of walking the tunnel opened up into an arena somewhat similar to the one that the salamander resided in but this one was larger with a number of pillars made from stalactites and stalagmites meeting. In the center of the room there was what looked like a pile of emeralds stacked conically about five to six feet tall, and even though I was almost sure that it was the boss it had no reaction to us entering its arena, though we were still at the periphery, still to far to identify it with the system.

"That is definitely the boss right?"(Mason)

"Probably."(Leo)

"It doesn't seem to be moving."(Jason)

"Maybe its waiting for us to get closer? Like a trap or something."(Jackson)

"Makes sense, Mason do you think you can hit it from here?"(Leo)

"Probably, but those gems look tough and if it's anything like the crystalmits, lightning won't do anything unless I hit the fleshy bits."(Mason)

"Even then, we don't really have a better option."(Leo)

With nods of agreement from the group I started channeling some crystal energy into a spike, using 50 MP to ensure a strong open, and combined with the natural buff that all my crystals got from the dungeon I ended up with a spike as large as my arm and as strong as I could make it, which I launched into the center of the assumed boss. An assumption that proved true as the stack seemed to shiver in response to the approaching attack before letting out a dull shine as the spike collided and shattered upon impact, leaving nothing but a small, if noticable, mark on it. Even with a lack of apparent damage it was enough to get the boss to uncoil and reveal itself as a giant centipede with a murky emerald carapace and large menacing mandibles that were clicking in rage as it let out a screech that sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

*SCREEEEE*

Using that as our cue we quickly took up positions using Leo and the pillars as cover while it charged at us and leaped into the air towards Leo. But it seemed that the creature was smarter than what we were used to as it used the spikes on its tail as a hook to change its direction mid air using one of the pillars and instead of landing on the ground it crawled along the ceiling getting around the pillar that I used as cover and lept straight at me, giving me barely enough time to activate [Elemental Channeling] and form a crystal shell of my own as it crashed into me and clamped its mandibles around my body with enough pressure that I could feel my shell straining against its bite force with the sounds of panic from my friends fading into the background as I focused on keeping my mana flowing into the shell and repairing it whenever cracks started to form, but I could feel my mana quickly draining and I knew I couldn't keep it up for long.

*CRACK*

*SCREEE*

Just as I felt my mana bottoming out the centipede let out a scree of pain and threw me into a nearby pillar, shattering the remains of my shell as it turned to face the others with an anger that I could feel through the air as I was able to make out a yellowish liquid seeping from some of the gaps in its lower carapace. A quick check to my status showed that I only had 30 mana left and even though Leo was able to hold its attention this time it became clear that this creature was in a whole different league from the salamander as even three against one it was holding its own, even managing to shoot emerald spikes at Jason forcing him to dodge between the pillars in between his attacks while using its tail to fend off Jackson. Thankfully, it seemed like it was at a stalemate but one look at Leo told me how much stamina he was consuming just keeping its head in check and it did not paint a pretty picture for how the fight would end if something didn't change quickly.