Lan had often wondered what exactly the monsters in the tutorial were. Did they respawn like humans did? Could they level up? Could they die?
He glanced up at the Vesper Inferno and wondered about these things.
So far, he had yet to meet a monster with sentience or initiative. Although the ant queen had come close, she had still remained in her little throne room, waiting for their arrival. And this thing was no different.
Even though Lan stood less than five metres from the mishappen, black stalactite, it didn't react to his presence. Lan's best guess was that there was some sort of trigger. Something that had to happen, criteria that had to be met, before the monster could move.
'Although, it does seem like the dungeon and sheer step monsters are different to those found out in the tutorial,' Or at least, Lan felt like the salamanders had a little more initiative. They acted more like animals than pre-programmed robots.
He wondered if he could take advantage of this unnatural behaviour. It was perfect for setting up traps… if he'd had any. Perhaps that was the biggest advantage that those with inside knowledge gained. The ability to prepare and strike pre-emptively was incredibly valuable.
Lan licked his lips and looked up at the black thing, watching tar drip down onto the floor.
Now that he was looking closer, the stalactite's appearance seemed less like a rock and more – leathery. It was too smooth and shone a little in the omnipresent fire light. It also seemed like the tar was coming from the creature itself rather than dripping down it.
Lan might've spent more time examining the room if not for the fact that, at any moment, someone could creep up behind him and launch a pincer attack.
Unfortunately, as seemed to be the norm, he was left with but one option.
Attack.
It only took a glance to know that the beast was immune to fire. But Lan didn't have much else in the way of weapons. In any case, he didn't hold high hopes for his lantern doing much damage.
He glanced around the room and saw numerous flaming stones sitting in the black filth. An idea popped into his head, and he ran over, grabbing a few rocks and examining them closely. Charred black and tough nails, the stones were almost indestructible.
'Perfect,'
Next, Lan created a rope, using roughly thirty mana strings, and wove each piece tightly together. When he was done, he gripped the rope in either hand and set the rock in the centre.
So far, he had managed to create a magical slingshot of sorts, but he had no way to pull the rope back.
Lan felt the connection with the rope in his hands and concentrated on it. He tried to sense how it all fit together and if he could control the rope with his mind. But his attempts were fruitless.
'Damnit,' he didn't have endless time in this room because of his difficulties breathing, so spending an hour or two figuring out how to draw back this slingshot wasn't on the cards.
He glanced down at his feet and sighed, 'I didn't want to have to do this,'
Bending over, Lan tied both ends of the rope around his feet and then lay on his back. He raised his legs, placing the stalactite roughly in the centre of the rope tied to his feet.
'This is humiliating,' Lan groaned, placing the rock in the centre of the rope once more and pulling back with both hands. As the tension rose, he strained to, with both body and mind, keep everything intact.
If he didn't focus on keeping the mana strings tightly wound together, everything would come undone. But if he didn't pull back far enough, the stone wouldn't even scratch the enormous monster.
'I just hope nobody's watching,'
***
Harriet watched Lan's embarrassing display from her hiding place within the tunnel - with a mixture of confusion and disgust. Was it yoga? Was he having a stroke? She couldn't tell.
***
Lan finally released the stone, and it left the rope with a twang, tearing across the room and slamming into the centre of the Vesper Inferno with enough force to knock the monster off the ceiling.
'Yes!'
The monster dropped from the ceiling and splashed into a pool of flaming tar, sending droplets of fire in all directions. It released a high-pitched squeal as it fell, sounding like a pig to be slaughtered. And when it landed in the pool of tar, it started thrashing like a drowning man.
Some of the tar landed on Lan's robe and burned straight through it, sizzling when it touched his skin.
'Ow, fuck.' Lan grimaced, 'It looks like even though the flames can't touch me, the tar will still do damage.'
Now that he knew he could get hurt, Lan stayed well back from the pool of tar – where the monster flailed and squealed in agonised fury.
It slowly dragged itself from the flaming pit, letting the sticky burning substance fall off its leathery skin in thick globs.
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When it began to unfurl its two enormous wings, Lan couldn't help celebrating the fact he had shot it with the stone first. Both wings had a gaping holes in them and looked ragged and torn. He doubted whether it would be capable of flying with those anytime soon.
Its body was both leathery and furry. In spots, its skin looked like an old handbag, and in others, it resembled a brown bear. Of course, Lan had seen such a creature before, just never of this size.
He gawped at the gigantic bat, which was bleeding from a deep wound in its concave chest. He saw ribs poking through its fur and dark red blood trickling down from the massive hole in its sternum.
It had two huge ears, which swivelled like satellite dishes towards him. At which point, the bat stopped screeching and took off in his direction. Both its eyes were glassy and utterly dark, but its blindness didn't stop it from moving with unearthly grace.
Lan watched it near and frowned. He could let it bleed out from the wound in its chest, but that might take hours.
He dodged a sweeping wing and ran under the bat, darting across the room. Before he made any decisions, he needed to get more…
Air.
Out of the corner of his eye, he had just seen someone in the tunnel. They were hiding well, very well, in fact, but Lan could spot a stray dog in the boneyard at night, and their attempts at hiding were ultimately futile.
He quickly changed direction and ran across the room, acting as though looking for the crown piece.
'What should I do?' He wondered. Committing to killing the bat was no longer an option. If he engaged in an all-out fight, his attention on the third party would slip. Which was probably what they were waiting for.
The bat screamed in frustration at Lan's continuous evasion, opening its mouth wide. From within came a stream of black tar. It poured out like a hose, streaking across the room and landing by Lan's feet.
At least he knew where the tar had come from.
Lan began to feel slightly overwhelmed. The blazing room, the feral bat, the ambush. What could he do with these pieces?
As he dodged a flashing claw and rolled through a puddle of tar that stuck to his back, he began to come up with a plan.
***
Harriet watched the fight intensely, calculating at every moment who was most likely to win. For the moment, it looked like the boy was on top, but whether that would last was up for debate.
He had yet to use many skills, which left her feeling a little uncomfortable. She liked to know exactly what she was up against – since it made her calculations more accurate. But all she could tell so far was that the boy could make a rope of sorts from mana and had ridiculously high physical stats.
The best way she could describe how he moved and fought was – shameless. There were no lengths he wouldn't go to survive. Whether it be throwing himself to the ground or clawing at the bat's wounds, he fought more like an animal than a human.
Unfortunately for her, that made him unpredictable.
She caressed her sword from her hiding spot, running a finger along its flawless blade. In the firelight, the metal surface shone slightly, reflecting her stoic face.
All she had to do was wait for the killing blow. Whether bat or man, when they finally overcame their opponent and moved in for the kill, she would strike. Right when they lowered their guard, thinking they had won - She would tear them apart.
The fight had a lot of give and take. In one moment, the boy was ahead. He would stomp on the bat or rip at its wings, easily manoeuvring his far smaller body around the hulking creature.
And in the next, the bat would spew burning tar onto him, scalding his skin red. It even managed to land a few hits on him, drawing faint lines of blood with its razor-sharp claws.
As the fight dragged on, Harriet felt her time to attack grow near. Both the bat and boy were waning in strength. Their blows packed less of a punch, and their dodges had grown languid. She could tell from the way they moved that they were exhausted and operating at only 60% of their combat potential.
This gave her a 70% chance to defeat both of them. But she would rather wait than take the risk. She watched the number go up, and finally, when her odds of winning had grown to 85%, she struck.
By this point, the bat had managed to win the upper hand - throwing the boy against a wall and scoring his back with garish wounds. He was curled up in a ball, cradling a wounded arm against his chest with his back to the tunnel.
Harriet jumped into the room and bolted towards the pair, skipping across the burning tar with the grace of a ballerina. She moved so fast that the fire never even had time to touch her clothes, not that it could have done any damage. All academy uniforms with flame-retardant as standard.
She zipped across the room, running up behind the bat so as to finish it off.
Just as she brandished her flawless sword and prepared to land the killing blow, she saw the numbers change.
Her probability of winning dropped from 85% to 70% again.
Then 60 and 40 and 30 and 10.
Harriet's ability only worked based on knowledge she knew. So, as she stood at the entrance, gauging both the boy's and bat's abilities, her probability of winning was based on this gathered data.
But, as she jumped through the air towards the bat, she learned something new, something that changed her chances entirely.
The boy wasn't cradling his wounded arm. He was holding what could only be described as a mana bomb against his chest. The glowing orb of compressed fire pulsed with such sheer, terrifying force that Harriet knew she was dead the instant she saw it.
As the boy turned and threw the orb of fire at her and the bat, with far more energy than he should have had; she could only stare wide-eyed as the entire world went red.
***
The second after throwing the compressed ball of fire, Lan closed his eyes and braced himself. But it wasn't good enough.
The explosion ripped the room apart, eviscerating both the girl and the bat.
Alert: Killed Lvl: 22 Vesper Inferno
Alert: Level Up [17->18]
Alert: Skill Created – Compression Bomb
It was only thanks to the blue pearl that he survived. It allowed him to ride out the scorching heat wave with only terrible burns rather than fatal ones.
But as soon as it arrived, the scorching heat passed, and Lan was left alone in the burning room as bits of bat rained down on him. He heard the sharp ring of something metal falling to the ground behind him, along with a gem-like tinkle.
Lan turned around and found a giant patch of the floor had been exposed. The tar had been blown away by the explosion and in the centre of the clearing sat a sword that had been scorched black. Beside the sword was small red crystal that twinkled like a star in the murk, and a golden circlet made from metal untouched by the blast.
He managed to crawl over to the crown pieces and sword, which were all that remained of the girl and the bat, picking them up. Lan proceeded to drag himself the rest of the way out of the room.
In the hallway, he could finally breathe again, and Lan sat there - panting like a dog.
"Only…" He paused for breath.
"Only one more left,"