Legends of Orlea

Chapter 17

The newest floor, floor 143, was pretty easy, if he compared it to floor 142 when he just got there. It was pretty difficult, but he'd been well equipped then. Even better now, though. Each of his strikes would deal at least 12 500 damage, and each monster had a maximum of 17 500 HP. Which meant he could one shot KO most of them.

Akil was doing well on this floor too, but he needed to go soon, so he teleported away to floor 142 to spread the answer of the riddle, then to floor 78 or something for his orders. Zirem was still trying to find a city, all the while gaining massive amounts of stat points. His blades put in their sheath again, he decided to search for a dungeon. Maybe that would activate his Personal Skill Tree.

Soon after, he found a mini dungeon called the Secret Shrine of Annihilation. The common name was either a coincidence or it was meant to unlock the skill tree. He pressed enter without reading the message. The boss wasn't in this dungeon anyways. An instinct he'd honed just by adventuring around the floors.

A sound wave told him the dungeon was made of plain stone, no traps or monsters nearby. He walked further, until he reached the dungeon boss (not the floor boss) room. He entered, and looked around furtively, sending out little sound waves to detect his position. There were no enemies though. 

Carefully, he approached the boss, which was a cloud of purple corruption, surround by sigils and symbols used for magic. It roared two words in a dark language, "Ith vi jalaran pakliol kini," and sigils glowed in the air around its open palm, until red sparks flew out of the mark, doing nothing.(The sparks are supposed to make the world go all foggy, but Zirem's blind; he doesn't notice the difference.)

Irritated, the boss expanded, creating another purple glowing sigil. This time, snow started falling, rapidly filling the room, but melting in the process. The room was filling up with water, reducing movement speed for him, but not the boss. Oh crap... he thought as his knees went under.

He sloshed forward, heading towards the cloud that was the boss, and struck it twice, barely doing any damage. He gritted his teeth in anger and frustration. He couldn't beat this boss unless he used magic. Just like that monster on floor 2, but this time, he couldn't afford to lose a single second.

Grunting with the effort, he waded over to the boss, but it flew away again, gliding over the water easily. Once again, he moved, but the boss glided away. Zirem muttered something to himself and then charged again, this time pushing off, barely going faster. The water was up to his waist now.

He then used Gaia's Meteor Cleave, then Soul-Shifting Calamity from a distance, taking down the beast's HP by a massive amount. It lost two health bars, of seven. Finally, he used the newest skill of Illusion Wielding as the water reached his elbows and torso. The new skill was called Legacy Flare, the second last Illusion Wielding skill to be unlocked.

The effect was immediate; the boss got the feeling of being paralysed, and had to face hundreds of clones of Zirem, each wielding two swords that were real, not illusions. The skill took down three more HP bars, but his stamina was getting a bit low. He wouldn't be able to defeat the boss with skills. So this dungeon basically forced him to learn how to use his Personal Skill.

The water was reaching his mouth now. He took a giant gulp of air, and went under. Swimming fast, Zirem soon reached the place where the boss was, and realised it couldn't see him. Good. His speculation was wrong, as the boss fired two blasts of dark magic, one taking a fifth of Zirem's HP. Then it started drawing towards it tiny particles of purple, and absorbed them, creating a black sigil in the air.

A massive pillar of darkness flew from the sigil, and Zirem was too slow to dodge it. Crap! He thought as the beam reached him. He closed his eyes (even though it didn't do anything), bracing for the impact, but felt nothing. Then it exploded, sending him reeling through the water, but he opened his eyes and mouth. He was out of breath, and he hadn't realised it.