Jay found two pieces of loot dropped by the dungeon’s first boss. The first was a hat, which replaced his current cowboy hat. The hat still gave 25% to his combat movement speed but offered a flat bonus of five into every single statistic. Now, his stats were completely unrounded, but he ignored that glaring temporary annoyance.
The second item was much more exciting and was clearly based directly on the boss. The item was an artifact and, most interestingly, was part of a set.
System Message: Wrath (Repeater Crossbow). Wrath of the Deep, this repeating crossbow is charged with mp and fires a spear of hot, boiling water magic once every two seconds. This item is part of a set featuring (2) items. When both set items are worn, the firing speed becomes once per second. Damage: 204-285. Missing Set Items: Resentment.
Even without the set effect, the item was a straight upgrade from his old repeater crossbow. The damage was much higher, and the broader damage range allowed for more devastating critical hits. He equipped both items, causing Cuddles to try and flake scales off the weird cowboy hat.
“Stop that, you crazy squirrel,” Jay demanded, picking up the squirrel by the scruff of his neck. The squirrel hissed at him but relented on its attack on his new hat.
Coela didn’t have any other items of note, not even crafting items, so Jay left the fish floating in the hole. He hadn’t received a key or special item, which stumped him. Glancing around the chamber, he didn’t see any exits. He tried submerging himself in water to look further but couldn’t see any way to leave the chamber except how he had come.
Next, Jay looked straight up in the air, hoping to see a way up lit by the fungus. He quickly shot to the top of the room, utilizing the remaining flight time to look for a way up by the dim light. There was nothing.
Sighing to himself, he began the intensive process of combing the cavern’s edges manually. Using his perception, and the touch of his hands, he felt around the cavern for grooves. He plucked mushrooms out by their stalks, looking for any hidden properties. He kept a couple since they were marked as yellow by his Herbalism skill.
The process went on for an hour. The first hour turned into a second hour. Jay found no grooves around the exit. He found no hidden doors. There weren’t any signs of resonant or dormant magic within the chamber. Further Monster Hunter script was nowhere to be seen. The cave showed no signs of allowing a way forward, but there had to be since he was in a proper dungeon.
Cuddles was intent on doing anything except searching for a way out. The little squirrel inspected the scales he had pulled from Jay’s hat. He swam laps around the cavern. At one point, he even started trying to jump from platform to platform, even though he was nowhere near making such a jump.
Finally, Jay gave up on the search, deciding to return to the parlor entrance and retrace his steps. He probably missed something in that room or the tunnels leading to Coela’s lair.
Since he was much more comfortable in the area, knowing that the giant fish was dead, the trip back to the parlor was much quicker. He wasn’t worried about any threats since he’d passed through that area once before. Twenty minutes later, he was back at the parlor area.
Across from the staircase that led into the tunnels was a new spiral staircase that looked made of clouds. The stairs led up into further parts of the castle. Jay had no idea when the new entrance had gotten there, but he had a distinct impression it happened around when he killed Coela down below.
“What do you think, Cuddles?” Jay asked, trying to ignore the fact that he was talking to a computer-generated squirrel since all his friends were gone. “Should we give the creepy cloud staircase the old college try?”
In response, Cuddles slammed a pair of eye beams into the cloud staircase. The clouds puffed at the spot of impact, dispersing into the air. New cloud material slid from further up the stairs to fill in the missing pieces. Satisfied with the result, the squirrel stopped his attack and curled into Jay’s shoulder to nap.
“So much for a loyal guard dog,” Jay muttered, going to the staircase. To his surprise, the clouds felt quite solid. They led at least all the way up to the ceiling of the parlor building. He took care moving forward since he was entering a new area where he wasn’t comfortable.
The staircase led him into a small room resembling a medieval castle armory. All kinds of armaments and armor were arrayed around the room, including crossbows. Jay briefly took a look over all the items but found nothing that was remotely interesting. All of the objects were equivalent to a level ten piece of equipment in power.
There was an easy door to exit the room, as well as one of the strange shining windows. Before continuing, Jay went to the window to check if he could see out the window. The light was easy to see through, letting him catch a view of the outside world. Most had stayed the same in the hours since he entered the castle. Although, he was unlucky enough to catch a shark that had just caught onto the turtles. The crazy shark just crunched right through the shell.
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Shuddering at the teeth problems, Jay exited the room and moved deeper into the castle. There was nothing much going on in this castle. He passed through a maze of rooms, expecting enemies to jump out at him at every moment. There was absolutely nothing to fear. Nothing happened. Finally, he came to the entrance to a tower.
Stopping at the entrance to the tower, Jay read a set of Monster Hunter runes emblazoned over the archway. The text read: As below, so above.
He scratched his head over that one for a few minutes. On the surface, the words seemed to indicate some kind of religious philosophy. And it was not the kind he’d like to share with friends who attended church. Still, it didn’t make any sense for the game to start making religious claims. Since he wasn’t too familiar with the more holy-based classes, there might have been a consistent theme, but he doubted it. He entered the room.
Jay immediately saw and recognized the style of the new area. It was typical for falconers, which he had seen on video streams previously. The mew was designed in a free loft style, although it was much larger than any medieval falcon could need. The tower climbed much higher, too.
An absolutely gigantic falcon was sitting on one of the perches, fifty feet up into the chamber. Jay couldn’t recognize the type but immediately launched his Analyze ability, which altogether failed him again.
Perry, Resentment of the Sky [Final Boss], Level: 55. Health: 7,700/7,700.
It was at least pleasant to know that this second boss was the final boss.
A stone slab slammed into place behind him, sealing him in the room. He quickly learned that Perry’s proclivities were not remotely the same as the first boss. It immediately took flight, sailing up into the air. As Jay watched, it turned on him to divebomb the Monster Hunter at the room’s entrance.
Rolling on the ground, Jay dodged out of the way and leveled his new Wrath crossbow at the enemy. Since it was the final boss, he activated Rapid Fire and started firing. There was no point leaving anything on the table.
The bird was too fast, quickly lifting itself out of the way and knocking Jay back to the ground with the force of the wind. He tried again from the floor, aiming his crossbow and blasting off two boiling water lances. The sheer power of the wind around the bird evaporated one blast, and the other missed completely.
The bird came around for another dive bomb attack, so Jay used his air dodge to propel himself out of the way. The move allowed him to escape being knocked over by the wind. Unfortunately, his allegedly powerful new crossbow couldn’t land a hit; the wind blocked two more shots.
Part of him wanted to take the air, but he worried that would just give the falcon an advantage. He was in serious trouble if it knocked him out of the sky.
On the next pass, Cuddles, who had just woken up, fired eye beams in a fit of rage. Those eye beams didn’t better penetrate the shield around the bird. Jay mumbled to himself in anger, revving up his brain for any other sort of plan.
Jay timed a blast charged with his Wild Strike ability to land on Perry the next time he was forced to air dodge away. The overcharged magical blast did nothing to blast through the defenses, fizzling away like all the others.
Thirty seconds into the fight and Jay hadn’t landed a hit on the enemy. At least the same could be said for the reverse, although he knew it was only a matter of time before he made a mistake. He thought over his other options.
Maragon Blossoms was a solid choice for offense and defense but could not kill the boss in a single blow. He needed to reserve it as a defensive option. Flying wasn’t an option since Jay expected the raptor would destroy him in aerial combat. He realized he hadn’t tried to look for critical points on the enemy.
Activating his ability, he looked through at the falcon, although he was forced to air dodge another dive bomb attack. This one came the closest to hitting him since the first attack. Gritting his teeth, he looked for Vital Points and found… nothing.
Perry was utterly obscured by a cloud of magic that whirled around him, so powerful it was visible to the ability. The magic cloud helped explain how it blocked every single projectile Jay could fire. It didn’t help the Monster Hunter figure out how to kill it.
As he waited for the next pass, Jay drew his sword. He stood ready for the falcon, prepared to dodge out of the way or activate his defensive shell as necessary. When Perry entered range, he slashed out at the creature with Purple Haze and landed a slash onto one of its claws. He managed to dodge the claws, but the force of the wind still knocked him to the ground.
Jay didn’t care at all. He’d discovered the weakness of the magic surrounding the raptor. The cloud effect only blocked ranged projectiles but did nothing to prevent Jay from using his sword to whittle down the creature’s health. All he had to do was keep dodging the attacks.
Perry, Resentment of the Sky [Final Boss], Level: 55. Health: 7,521/7,700.
Their fight wore on, with Jay acquiring the same meticulous focus he had used years ago during previous games. The same intense tunnel vision was used to finish off raid bosses alone.
Jay Miller was back.
Over the next six minutes, strike by strike, Jay brought the health of the falcon down. He anticipated some sort of change in the style of the battle, but it never came. Slowly, throughout the fight, he realized the difference.
As Perry took damage, the falcon was becoming faster. Jay couldn’t tell since he was already so quick to begin with, and his movement speed was boosted beyond that. His intense focus was giving him everything he needed to defeat the boss, standing on a razor’s edge, pushing the limits of his talent.
Jay had no real reason to use a particular strike to bring the boss down, but he dealt the killing blow by clipping Perry’s left wing, anyway. And when he checked the monster’s corpse, there was more loot to be had.