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Chapter 162 - Limitations (Thank you for your support, Reth!)
🕑 Added 2024-11-10 09:16:42 +0000 UTC‘My luck is truly the worst… if there were a luck parameter, I would make it reach over nine thousand!’
It wasn’t like I was expecting that things would be that smooth… Come to think of it, there were many ways to make the water come faster inside the labyrinth despite all the sand, I soon confirmed that when the temperature began to drop in the room.
The boss ignored the water and just charged at me, making some droplets splash on me even when I used Shadow Step… it was cold, really cold. The mages outside were probably using their magic to make the water colder. Even if it isn’t freezing soon thanks to the amount of water, it would eventually freeze the surface of the sand and then the water would fill the dungeon faster.
Still, at least that made things a bit easier for me. After the monster moved around and splashed water everywhere, the body of the monster was plenty wet and with some freezing arrows, the water began to freeze and then the creature slowed down enough that I could even outpace the monster with ease.
The moment the creature slowed down, I used a bunch of decay arrows on its head and then eventually, the monster stopped moving altogether.
You received 8.000 experience points.
You completed a trial. Please choose between the classes: Elementalist (Blood Mage), Warblade, and Druid (Corruptor).
You obtained the Warblade class.
The Movement Speed parameter was improved.
You unlocked the aptitude: Relentless Assault.
You unlocked the skill: Crushing Dual Strike.
You unlocked the skill: Relentless Combo.
Relentless Assault: Gain bonus experience for landing consecutive hits without missing.
Crushing Dual Strike: Slam both weapons down with tremendous force, dealing heavy damage based on your strength and dexterity. This attack has a high chance of breaking the enemy’s guard or stagger them. Cost: 35 Stamina.
Relentless Combo: Launch a flurry of strikes with both weapons. Each hit in the combo deals with increasing damage, and the final hit has a chance to knock the enemy down if all strikes connect. Cost: 40 Stamina.
I made my choice as soon as possible because I was running out of time. I also dismantled the body of the boss again, chopping its limbs off with my explosive arrows instead of using a knife, since the monster was too big, too big in the magic bags as it was.
When it was over, the water in the chamber was already covering my feet. Things were going a lot faster than expected. Perhaps reaching even the fortieth floor was a bit too risky here. Still, I headed to the next one without hesitation.
The next section of the labyrinth was pretty large. Sand was everywhere, there were some natural earth pillars that connected the ceiling and the sand on the ground that got really thin in the middle.
Still, all that was unimportant. The important part was that the mud was making it harder for my bike to move… It was a lot more annoying than plain sand.
‘I should have prepared some tires for this kind of situation.’
My speed decreased a lot in the mud, to the point that running myself was a better option, so I did exactly that. Still, I soon was stopped when the first monster emerged from the ground. Despite the conditions of the environment, it looked like they still could fight… They were sand golems that were the size of ogres. Still, thanks to all the water around, they became mud golems.
‘It seems that instead of staying hidden underground, it looks like they are formed almost on the surface instead of hiding like the other monsters. That would explain why all of their bodies are made of mud now… the water hadn’t drenched all the sand in the area.’
The monster began to fire a barrage of mud balls at me… and I had to use Arcane Arrows to kill it, since their core was hard to find under normal conditions. They exploded the body of the monster in two parts and the core was finally destroyed.
You received 80 experience points.
At least it was easy to find the mana core after that. Still, I either had to rely on luck to dispose of the monster without a single shot, or I had to increase my magic to make the Arcane Arrows more powerful.
I didn’t have any multipliers to increase my magic, so it would take a while before any difference was noticed. While I was thinking about that, I kept dashing toward the end of the floor, but then I frowned when I found another mud golem already blocking my path.
“What the hell… this is too soon.”
Not a lot of time had passed, and I didn’t cross even one hundred meters, either. Even if this was the last section of the dungeon, this was simply too weird… unless the water made the monsters spawn faster. I assumed that the monsters only spawn thanks to the presence of people inside a labyrinth, but it probably could react to attacks too. And that massive amount of water could be considered an attack.
In any case, I disposed of the monster with two Arcane Arrows once again… at this point in time, I wasn’t recovering enough mana during the battles, but I still could use Shadow Step with my own mana to increase my movement speed and I did exactly that.
I considered hiding from the monsters to gain time, but ignoring all the experience would be a massive waste. There was also a chance that the people outside wouldn’t get the experience for the killings either, so I decided not to waste it.
In the end, I only reached the water on the fourth floor in this section.… It was almost moving faster than me at some point. I wondered if the first floors of the dungeon would overflow before the water reached the end of the labyrinth. It wasn’t like the people outside could freeze the entrances by blocking them faster, like the worms did back then.
‘Going back to the entrance will be a lot harder since I will be going against the current. I need to think of ways to make the trip faster. Kind of hard to do that when there are so many monsters blocking my path.’
On the other hand, I was getting a lot more mana cores than before, so perhaps that was a good thing. I had to find a way to make them useful on the way back.
Since I left the mud behind for now, I decided to use my bike to gain time and make my hands free for a bit. It would be a bit hard to make anything now, but I probably could if I was focused enough.
The first idea that came to mind was to make another grappling crossbow. I could use both of them to return to the entrance while avoiding the water for quite a while and covering distances quite fast. While I could use them several times in a row, they wouldn’t last that long if I kept using them until the end of the dungeon.
I had improved the boat version of my bike a bit, but it wouldn’t be fast enough, even more so going against the current. I wanted to learn a levitation spell and then add that to the enchantments, but something like that was insanely expensive, as it was rare as well.
‘I guess the best option would be to increase the engine size or make another one… either way, it will consume two times more mana cores.’
I was running out of time, and I had to make anything that would come in handy instead of waiting for new ideas. At the same time, I decided that the next boss would be the last. Even if the labyrinth had fifty floors, I couldn’t take more risks than I was already taking.
Making or expanding the engine would take too long as well, but I realized that I could do something else. I used the carapaces of the scorpions and carved them out into small amulets. Since they were thin, I was able to carve three of them at the same time over each other. That increased the production speed a bit more. Still, they probably won’t last for as long as I need the time to make the others.
When I finished them, I attached a mana core to it and then put it close to the ground. A fireball was shot from it and the explosion pushed me upward for half a meter.
‘I guess this will work… alongside the engine. It will make the boat move faster by blasting away the water behind.’
I had thought of a bunch of things over the years to help in all kinds of scenarios, but it looked like I was still ill prepared. Well, this world was quite insane, so the number of insane things that could happen was quite hard to quantify.
The spawning rate of the sand golems returned to normal, so I wondered if I would find a bunch of them on the way back. I was quite sure that I would, and that was definitely another aggravation to the already aggravating situation.
‘I guess I should do my best to keep leveling up Shadow Step… this kind of situation won’t be a problem once the skill reaches level one hundred or something.’
I realized that despite the many hairy situations I have faced until now, it looked like my sense of urgency was still weak. It wasn’t like I was never been close to dying before. I was almost died two times so far, when I was impaled by the ice spear and when the kraken unleashed those thousands of worms… it seemed that I had to recall that more and more. All in order to not forget the feelings that I had those times.
Absolutely hopeless and regretful for not being strong enough. I had gotten stronger, but not strong enough to render this kind of plan useless. I had to obtain strength in order to not to worry about this kind of cheap trick… in one way or the other.
Comments
soldier eraser
Fixed. Thanks!
Tolokk
You forgot to mention that he chose the warblade class
