Two days later.
Rakna sat on the dismantled body of a High Treant as he ate the heart of one of the carnivorous plants that littered the ground. He was currently inside one of the three Dungeons given to him by Fniera. In fact, it was the third he visited and he was in the process of finishing the fiendish stage.
He swallowed the last piece of the vegetable-like heart, feeling his mana and stamina regenerate, and watched as Pronos and a pack of wooden wolves tore apart the remaining eating plants.
These wolves were of course a product of his Call of Hounds and the fact that this Dungeon was essentially an underground jungle, they had taken the form of Wood Elemental Wolves. Physically speaking, they were as strong as the Shadow Wolves.
But they were capable of sprouting spikes from any part of their bodies and when they were cut apart, they could split up at the cost of decreased attributes.
Rakna dusted his hands and jumped off from the dead treant. When he landed on the ground, the wolves and Pronos finished off the last monster plant.
❮ ◈ ❯
You have completed The Swallowing Jungle’s 17th Floor! Boss Floor Opened!
Do you wish to leave?
Yes/No
❮ ◈ ❯
“No,” Rakna said out loud and dispelled the wolves with a snap. The earth split apart and revealed the tunnel to the Boss Room. Pronos leaped on his shoulder again as he walked down the stairs of the passage.
“Fuck, I’m tired…” He grumbled and yawned. “Aren’t those 48 hours over yet?”
[Affirmative. Your items should be coming very soon.]
“Good. I’ll finally be able to rest once I get the Poraxidium,” he said and stepped down the last stair of the tunnel. He looked around with his hands in his pockets and hummed. The room was circular with walls made of stone while the ground was covered in a spotless patch of green grass.
Rakna smelled something and looked up. Immediately, something dropped from the ceiling and landed in front of him with a loud quake. A roar echoed and hundreds of green tentacles invaded the room from the center where a giant rose with veins and a mouth in its stem was present.
The therian quickly appraised it and its level was 50. It was thirteen levels under his own. Levels of the Wilden were apparently not necessarily a lot higher from one Plateau to another. Especially with Dungeons where the strength of its monsters was defined by the Dungeon itself.
Rakna eyed it with a disinterested look even as it slowly crept toward him with a long row of sharp teeth ready to chomp him down.
“Listen here, you damn flower, I’m sleep deprived. For some goddam reason, the Dungeon before this one had 46 floors and it took me 15 hours to finish. I don’t have any patience left,” he uttered and right as the Boss was about to impale him with its tentacles, it froze mid-action.
The appendages were the first to regain movement. They started shaking and it spread to the main body. The plant’s mouth closed and made weak high-pitched sounds.
Meanwhile, a black aura was growing around Rakna. It took the shape of a large werewolf with a red skull mask. The temperature increased and he smirked. He took his hands out of his pockets and approached the Boss that was fearfully crawling backward to escape him.
“{So this is what you meant by a hundred times better…}” Higure muttered. She was quite frankly frightened. This killing intent was truly worthy of being considered an avatar of death itself.
“{This sensation… it has some similarities to the book,}” Fray added. “{The Kind Demon has taught the boy more than just fighting. Both of them are… ruthless to the core.}”
Rakna forced the Boss back against the wall and raised his hand. “A gift for you; this is a new spell that I haven’t tried out yet,” he said and a spiraling sphere of magma materialized in his palm. The droplets of lava produced by it fell on the ground and charred through the grass.
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“Hey, ugly flower, do you know what coronal loops are?” Rakna asked as he charged the spell with more mana, making the sphere bigger. The Boss barely had the mental capacity to recognize other living beings; it had no idea what he was saying. And that only further increased its terror.
“Well, it was rhetorical. You stink of fear by the way. Anyway, they’re essentially massive magnetic field loops that form an arc on the surface of stars. They carry plasma, are exceptionally hot, and are generally short-lived,” he explained and raised his hand above his head. The volcanic sphere expanded again and a sort of halo formed around it.
“Let’s see how you like it,” he grinned. “[Natcattira Kirīṭam,]” he chanted and the sphere exploded and released the halo in a full 360° angle. It surged with a strident sound accompanied by a noise akin to gas combustion.
The halo expanded at a speed invisible to the naked eye and the next thing Rakna knew, the entire room had a massive circular melting trench dug into the walls. As for the Boss… it had been cut in two along with a number of its tentacles. The bisected parts fell powerlessly and ignited.
Rakna lowered his hand and his aura vanished as if it was never there. Pronos had an absolute look of shock as he observed the aftermath of the spell.
❮ ◈ ❯
You have learned a new spell!
---
Name: Natcattira Kirīṭam
Tier: 5
Conjure a condensed sphere of star energy and redirect its energy around it to form a crown of plasma and magnetic force. Proceed to release the condensed energy at once and transfer it to the corona.
It will expand in all directions and everything it touches will melt and be cut by the unrelenting heat. Caution is advised when using this spell near allied forces.
Max Crown Radius: 630 meters (10 times the Host’s Level).
Cost: 60% of the Host’s Mana Pool (Max Correction: 40%).
Attack: User’s MA multiplied by 6.
Cooldown: 1 Hour.
---
You have completed The Swallowing Jungle!
Difficulty: Fiendish.
Number of Participants: 1 | Average Level of Participants: 63
Rewards: 30 000 Talys, Seed of the Gem Flower.
---
You will now be transported out.
❮ ◈ ❯
Rakna huffed as he read the spell’s description. “A multi-directional spell with high attack and a vast range. The risk of friendly fire aside, it’s the dream AoE ability.”
“{It is indeed very good,}” Fray commented.
The therian nodded and closed the window. He was teleported out of the Dungeon right after and he appeared in front of a cavern covered in vines and moss. He yawned again but quickly sobered up when another System prompt chimed.
❮ ◈ ❯
The inter-dimensional transport has been finalized. The items have been placed inside your storage. The System apologizes for the wait. There was a delay due to dimensional turbulences in the place from which the items were taken.
❮ ◈ ❯
“Finally!” Rakna cried out and opened his Item Box. He pulled out the drug first and a vial of blue liquid appeared in his hand. He took a closer look at it and checked the label. “Good. There wasn’t any mistake,” he said and stored it back.
“{Are you not going to take it now?}”
“Are you crazy? I’ll blackout the moment I use that thing,” he retorted. “I need to inject it in a safe place. Hmm, there’s only the Ordeal left to do for me to promote… but whatever, I prefer returning to normal as fast as possible. I’ll do it later. Alexa; First Plateau.”
[Understood.]
* * *
Rakna reappeared on the roof of the building he was on when he left the First and unhesitatingly jumped down. He free fell for a few seconds before deploying his wings. He used Stealth and flew right to the girls’ hotel.
He retracted his wings mid-flight and flashed-stepped to the entrance with his hair and fur back to black. He hurried to the last floor of the hotel and ringed the bell at the girls’ door. In just a few seconds, Evelyn opened the door.
“Ah, Rakna! You’re back,” she welcomed him happily. “I saw you on the news. Flavia told me about the full shift. Are you still…?”
“Yeah, I am. But I got the stuff that will turn me back,” he replied and she could tell right away that he was different. The tone of his voice was very obvious, of course, but even his vocabulary seemed slacker.
“Welcome back,” Nyx greeted him the moment he entered the lounge.
“Are you okay?” Flavia skipped straight to the questioning and worriedly examined him.
He rolled his eyes and snickered, something that took Nyx and Evelyn by surprise. Only the Chaos Witch was relatively used to it, though she had always been uneasy when she saw him like that.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just tired as fuck,” he said and tossed her a vial of Poraxidium along with a syringe that came with it. “Help me out, will you? I will sit down and you will inject me this to the back of my neck, just above the spine. Don’t worry about hurting me, the syringe’s size is tailored for that use. So, you can stab it all the way in and press the button.”
Flavia nodded seriously. “This should be less dangerous than last time… right?”
“I don’t know. To be fair, there might still be a chance of causing irreparable damages,” he said and took a seat on a couch. Flavia followed him and anxiously clutched the medicine. “But I don’t have a choice at this point. Do it. I’ll try not to kick the bucket, so don’t make a fuss.”
Nyx faintly smiled from the side. “You really have a loose tongue in this state.”
“You’ve seen nothing yet,” he laughed. “Sadly, I’m too tired right now. Flavia, go ahead.”
She nodded and placed the vial on the small table. She grabbed the syringe and pierced through the cap to load one dose. “Are you ready?”
He nodded and turned his head so that she could see his neck. She took a deep breath and thrust the needle of the syringe into it. Rakna grunted and she pushed the content inside.
Without delay, he convulsed and his muscles contracted. The veins around his neck bulged as the drug spread through his nervous system. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.
❮◈❯ Pain Resistance has leveled up! ❮◈❯
“Fuck, this crap hurts way more than I remember,” he growled out, feeling his consciousness fade away bit by bit. His eyes were already flickering between red and purple while his hair was now a mix of black and red.
“Is it a bad thing?” He heard Flavia ask worriedly.
“Nah… it’s a good sign actually… means... my brain signals… are still… working… properly,” he said softly and his eyelids got heavier. The red finally went away from his features and he let himself fall on the couch.
“I’ll take a nap… for a while…” That was the last thing he said before falling unconscious.