I was stunned for a second when I realized that this thing was a tier-six monster. This was worse than a hunter! Hunters usually were layer-appropriate, fully leveled monsters that got some special bonuses. This dungeon boss was essentially a monster from the next layer down. I stared incredulously at the floating system text describing the progenitor. What the hell was the system thinking with these challenges?

As I was baffled by the audacity of the system, I suddenly felt a surge of strength. I felt power explode inside me and I felt like I was on top of the world. Confused, I tried to figure out what was happening, when I remembered my giant hunter passive. The skill only triggered when I was facing a monster that was at least one tier above myself and doubled all of my attribute points. A passive skill I’d received all the way on the first floor, which had somewhat become irrelevant once I started fighting monsters on my own tier.

Now, the skill came back with a vengeance. My attributes were higher than they were ever before, especially my intelligence and wisdom. Every point in these two attributes were further enhanced my EX skill, and I was currently overflowing with power. I was recovering from the shock of seeing the progenitor and was starting to feel like I should be able to do this.

The progenitor breached the water again, sticking out its face to look for me. I noticed that the carvings I’d seen weren’t really doing it justice. It had been presented as a dragon similar to the ones I knew from Chinese mythology, but this thing looked a lot more menacing. Its head looked pretty smooth and well-suited for pushing its way through the water. Large, blue scales covered the entirety of its body, and now that I looked at it, I could see how the fake water dragons could be mistaken for the real deal. The main difference was that the real ones were a lot bigger, and had a less goofy-looking face.

I stopped myself from simply staring at the thing and switched over to combat mode. The progenitor had its head on a swivel while looking for its challenger, void cloak keeping me hidden from sight. In order to take full advantage of the element of surprise, I used my newly raised stats to summon more javelins into my array, summoning another ten javelins in a scant few seconds. I was just about to start my bombardment, when the progenitor apparently tired of searching and went on the attack as well.

I watched as its mouth opened wide, a blue glow in its throat announcing what was to come. I used leap to jump straight up, the secondary leap shooting me even higher. My wings snapped open while a massive torrent of water shot out of the progenitor's open mouth, absolutely drenching the platform below me. Good thing I wasn’t there anymore, or I’d have taken some serious damage.

I let loose all of my void javelins at the same time, aiming at its open mouth, its eyes, and the part of its body that wasn’t in its body. Over twenty explosions shook the entire temple shortly after, my doubled intelligence score packing the spells with a lot more oomph. I had to fight some turbulence in the air as the progenitor cried out in pain, revealing entire areas of its face where the scales had been blown clean off, its mouth was torn to shreds, and one of its eyes had seemingly evaporated.

My void cloak had dissipated as soon as I’d attacked, and even if my attack was incredibly effective, its other eye locked on to me almost immediately. I could see the madness in its eyes, hungering for revenge. I shot two poison assassinations at its exposed skin just before it dove back into the water below.

I cursed as I had no idea where it was anymore. The sparse lighting of the room made it hard to see in general, and the platform I’d arrived on wouldn’t let me see below the water. The only way I could properly follow it would be by diving down there with it, but I’d give up on my advantage like that. So, I was gliding in circles, watching the water like a hawk for when it jumped out once again.

It didn’t take long for the progenitor to breach the water again, shooting out of it at great speed and lunging at me. I snapped my wings close as soon as I saw it, dropping like a stone and barely avoiding the large body coming at me. Or so I thought. One of its fins managed to barely graze me, which sent me flying, shortly after slamming into the platform below me.

I quickly shook off the daze that was threatening to overcome me, while the tail end of the progenitor was still flying over the platform. It employed similar tactics to what the fake water dragon had used, so I knew that I could fight it with a similar attack as well. I started charging up a magical bolt, infused with the element of wind, my high intelligence and wisdom allowing me to pump it full of mana at a ridiculous speed.

When the progenitor breached again, I had already charged the simple spell with over seven thousand MP. It once again accurately lunged at me and I shot the magical bolt to meet it. Now, I knew that this spell would be pretty strong when I was charging it, but I still wasn’t prepared for what happened next.

A massive ball of cutting winds phased into existence, rocketing at the progenitor. The strong winds that picked up threw me backward, slamming me into the far wall and keeping me there. I could only watch in astonishment as the balled-up typhoon slammed into the progenitor. The wind had so much force that it stopped the huge dragon dead in its tracks, causing it to flop into the platform below it as the bolt of wind continued to rip out scales and cut gashes into its flesh as it passed by. It finally terminated on the opposite wall, sending blades of wind all over the room, some of them further cutting into the progenitor and one of them barely missing me.

When the wind pressure finally let up I fell into the water below me. I floated there for a moment, astonished by the spell I’d just cast. Magical bolt was considered the most basic spell there is, but the fact that it had a variable mana cost made it a terrifying tool in the repertoire of a mage with enough mana reserves. I remembered that the capstone ability of the magic truth skill tree would make all of my spells have a variable cost, and that thought was equally fascinating and frightening.

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Remembering that I was still in a life-or-death fight with a powerful monster, I quickly expanded my wings and swam back to the surface, pulling myself up on the platform with my tentacles. I made it just in time to see the progenitor wriggling the top half of its mutilated body back into the water. I hadn’t cast that many spells yet, but already this huge boss-class monster was on the ropes. I always knew that my EX skill was completely busted, but I hadn’t considered the synergy it had with my giant hunter passive. If I fought with higher-tiered monsters, there was a very real chance that my stats would soar to ridiculous numbers. A true shame that my MaxHP and MaxMP weren't affected by this growth.

I’d need to be careful with these big spells though, since I was in a relatively small room to throw around spells of that magnitude. If I’d used a fire-infused bolt instead, I might just have fried myself. Wind seemed like an okay element here, but there was a danger that I accidentally cut myself. Fire would grill me, and water most likely had little to no effect on the progenitor. Which left the earth element, which would make a huge rock that might obstruct what little solid ground I had.

I decided to just go with the usual void javelin spam when I noticed large masses of water creeping up the walls and pooling on the ceiling. I cautiously jumped to the center of the platform, summoning a new array of javelins. One by one, the torches on the wall went out, plunging the room into darkness, the only source of light left being the purple glow of my spells.

The little light they emitted wasn’t nearly enough to properly see anything in the room and I had no idea where my adversary was until I noticed an arc of electricity above me. I immediately jumped to the side and started shooting at the ceiling. The javelins detonated, displacing tons of water that was weirdly floating above me and doing little more. The flashes of their explosions gave me a glimpse of the progenitor, though. The dude was up there, being up to something.

I should invest in a proper light spell at some point.

I kept shooting at the ceiling to little effect. The water was blocking most of the force, and I was relatively certain that the progenitor was manipulating the water to intercept my javelins. I kept seeing more and more flashes of electricity, which was worrying. This did have the side effect of lighting up the room, though. The flashes were now almost constant, and I could finally see what was going on up there.

The progenitor was rapidly swimming in circles on the ceiling, creating a whirlpool. I realized that this mirrored the mural I’d seen in the room above. My javelins were all intercepted and I stopped shooting them, more concerned with defending myself from whatever this guy was charging up. It was obviously some electricity-based attack, which meant diving into the water and under the platform wouldn’t help. The water had become a death trap. Staying on the platform didn’t seem viable either, since the attack would probably discharge here.

I watched in horror as the arcs of electricity gathered toward the center of the whirlpool and I started charging an earth-infused bolt with mad speed. Maybe slamming a huge rock in there would counteract whatever was coming. I also activated both of my defensive abilities, even though they probably wouldn’t help much. The electricity had now converged in the middle, giving off a blinding light. I shot off my spell, hoping that it would be enough, and retracted my eyes, not wanting to be blinded by the spell any further.

And I prayed.

For a single moment, everything went still. I could feel the electricity in the air, threatening the massive discharge that was about to occur. Then it happened. Everything shook and I was almost thrown off the platform, holding on for dear life. I prepared for the pain, but it never came. Confused I extended my eyes again, seeing that the scales I’d collected in the maze were floating around me, giving off a soft glow. I had barely any time to process what had happened when the scales crumbled to dust.

The progenitor didn’t give me a lot of time either, as shortly after all of the water on the ceiling came crashing down, almost crushing me in the process. My defensive skills were still active, taking care of the brunt of the weight. After a few seconds that felt a lot longer than that, The water cleared out, leaving a stunned progenitor half on the platform. Apparently, his skill damaged him as well, causing him to be unable to move for a while afterward.

It was a decent tradeoff for such a powerful skill, which would definitely have done some real damage if it hit me, it would probably even have killed me. But my hunch had proven to be right. The scales were important after all! They were placed into the dungeon specifically to block this one move of the boss! I assume that depending on how many scales were collected before, more damage would be mitigated. In the case of all five scales being present, the entirety of the attack was negated!

Not wanting to let such a chance slip by, I started absolutely unloading on the stunned progenitor. Javelins, poison spells, and various magical bolts peppered the boss as I threw everything I had at it, and eventually, it fell.

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Congratulations Traveler!

You have defeated the boss of the dungeon:

Deep Sea Temple #34 (The Primordial’s Lair).

You have been rewarded with:

1 Deep Sea Gem.

The exit of the dungeon has been opened.

You have completed a bonus objective!

Retrieve a deep sea gem from an underwater temple. (1/1)

You have leveled up four times!