Chapter 65. Draconian Lin (3)
About five hours after that, I was pouring Holy Water over my Silver Spear and Black Earthen Spear, humming happily in front of the "27th" Floor Shop. To cover the spear all the way to the spear handle, it took five bottles of Holy Water per spear. Even so, once finished, the spears would deal bonus damage to undead monsters for a full day.
Plus, I felt like I wouldn"t drop my equipment even if I died. Though, dying in the dungeon didn"t drop your equipment anyways!
Lin was looking at me with a wry expression.
"You bugged b.a.s.t.a.r.d…!"
"I"m happy. I was even faster than when I broke through the 26th floor. Bets really encourage people to try harder."
"Let"s cancel that."
"A man"s words are worth a thousand gold!"
"Kuk… Then let"s make the time limit shorter! Half a year!"
"Fine, but you have to make the rewards better."
"C-Cape. I"ll even make a cape made from my ancestor"s leather! But if you want to obtain that too, you"ll have to do it within 3 months! 3 months, understand!?"
"Call!"
[Your quest has been renewed.]
A cape made out of dragon leather? My eyes sparkled as I agreed to his new terms. Since I planned to break through past the 40th floor within 6 months, I wouldn"t lose out on anything. If I succeeded within 3 months, I would obtain an even greater treasure. Now that things had come to this, I had to try even harder!
"Then I"m going to run a bit faster!"
"What, how have you been running until now!?"
"But I wonder, why didn"t I get a t.i.tle for clearing the 26th floor quickly? …Was it because I already have Hermes…?"
"H-Hermes!? You b.a.s.t.a.r.d, you even have a G.o.d"s true name! Uk, my back!"
Though a bit ridiculous, the skeletons" cla.s.ses became a bit more diverse from the 28th floor on. There were the skeleton warriors who attacked with swords or iron maces, skeleton archers who shot out arrows made of bones, and the skeleton magicians who incessantly shot out trivial and annoying magic attacks. Without Peika, it would have been impossible.
"Gelgel, make sure not to hurt his bones!"
"I"ll shoot arrows!"
I pierced my spear through the wrist of a skeleton striking down at me with its iron mace. The skeleton then dropped its iron mace along with its wrist. I grabbed it by its skull and threw it at the skeleton archer. When they collided, they both shattered. The other skeletons flinched upon seeing it, and began to back away.
"S-Skull Breaker!"
"It"s the Skull Breaker!"
"How do you guys even know about that!? Tempest!"
"Kiaaaaa! Skull Breakeeeeeer!"
After being swept up by Tempest, the skeletons all shattered together, creating a pleasant clicking sound. With the 50 percent attack power boost from Death Counter, just a single Tempest was enough to destroy the skeletons.
[I broke all the skeletons trying to use magic!]
"Good job, Peika. Then let"s run!"
[Okay!]
While Peika soared through the air, taking care of magic using skeletons with Thunder Bombs and Thunder Spears, I cleanly took care of the skeleton warriors in front of me as I ran.
At first, I used and maintained Spirit Aura, but I soon realized it was unnecessary. It was better to let Peika to do her own thing.
"Peika, 11 o"clock, skeleton magicians!"
[Thunder Bomb!]
I circulated Peruta circuit as I ran and always had Mana Potions in my mouth to make up for the huge drain on my mana. In my hands were my two spears, which I swung around like baseball bats. I may have seemed a bit unsightly, but I didn"t care.
Although I thought drinking Mana Potions was wasting money, upon thinking about it, I realized it was the same thing as investing money to raise my skill proficiency. After I realized that, I no longer hesitated to use them.
In truth, I was overflowing with gold. I didn"t need to use gold outside of purchasing Floor Master Battle Tickets and Party Member Scarecrows. Thus, I started buying Mana Potions. I didn"t need Health Potions. While going through normal floors, I had never been gravely injured.
When I was just about to break through the 28th floor, messages that always made me happy rang out.
[Mid-rank Spirit Mastery becomes level 2! Your eyesight for souls strengthens and you will gain a favorable impression from spiritual beings more easily.]
[Low-rank Spirit Aura becomes level 9! You can more strongly draw out elementals" potential.]
[Low-rank Elemental Control becomes level 9! Elementals will more actively listen to your plea for help.]
[Low-rank Elemental Contract becomes level 9! You can feel your soul"s container growing more mature. The bond of contract to your elemental becomes firmer.]
"Oh, oooh!"
[I got a little stronger again!]
Peika and I both yelled out in happiness. Soon, my skills as an Elementalist would reach mid-rank! I was starting to worry because my Elementalist skills were much lower-ranked than my Spear Technique skill and Martial Arts skill, but it seems my worry was for nothing. Once the skills became mid-rank, I would be able to grow much stronger. Once I obtained mid-rank Elemental Contract, not only would Peika"s strength grow, but I could also form a contract with another elemental.
Lin was watching me with rotten eyes.
"Three and a half hours… crazy."
"See you later!"
Just like always, I put 2 points into strength and dexterity, and 1 into const.i.tution. Then, I ran up to the 29th floor. Update? It was a waste of time to wait around for my body to finish updating. That was something that would automatically happen as I fought!
"Skull Breaker!"
"Skull Breaker crushes us skeletons."
"We will crush your spine and make you unable to move."
"Stop his advance!"
The skeletons on the 29th floor wore a few pieces of armor. There were also some skeletons mixed in that weren"t wearing any armor. Regardless, the moment I yelled "Commence Exploration" on the 29th floor, the skeletons had me surrounded, as if they were waiting for me to appear.
I knew instinctively that I couldn"t kill them with Tempest. Although just one or two might have been fine, what I saw seemed to be the 29th floor"s elite skeletons, as they wore proper armor and carried swords and shields.
They slowly tightened the encirclement, and I pondered as I took a step back. How was something like this possible? These guys really were much more intelligent than the zombies. Plus, I could feel a strong presence from behind them. It seemed there was a named monster controlling them.
Taking another step back, I put a Mana Potion in my mouth. Then, I shouted while thrusting forward with my Black Earthen Spear.
"Elemental Tempest!"
[FIRST!]
[Hurry, hurry!]
[Spin~]
[Kugagaga! Let"s go break skeletons!]
In front of the armored skeletons approaching me, my spear enveloped by an elemental storm exploded.
"Kueeeek!"
"My bones!"
"Too strong!"
"Huu, skill to win is the best."
Even the armored skeletons could not withstand my Elemental Tempest, which was made using 50 percent of my mana, and shattered. It was then that my field of view finally cleared up. The ordinary skeletons warriors that were on standby behind the frontline forces yelled with fl.u.s.tered voices.
"General!"
"General died!"
"They were generals? Tempest!"
Since I cleared out the skeletons equipped with armor and shields, I could use Tempest to take care of the rest. These b.a.s.t.a.r.ds dared to make a defensive formation? I felt satisfied now that the skeletons encircling me with their shields were taken care of.
"Peika!"
[Got it! Chain Lightning!]
Although their boney bodies were supposed to be strong against lightning, they didn"t seem strong enough to handle Peika"s Chain Lightning. One by one, the encircling skeletons fell from the lightning that started from Peika"s finger.
However, Chain Lightning, that was spreading like fire on a wheat field, suddenly disappeared. Although most of the skeletons had already died, it was an abrupt end, given how rapidly it had been spreading.
[Kuaaa…!]
The one who swung his sword to interrupt Chain Lightning stared at me fixedly. He was at least 2.3 meters tall and was twice as big as me.
[Destroy… Skull Breaker.]
A deep imposing voice. He was undoubtedly the instigator who had gathered up the skeletons into a battle formation from the start of the 29th floor! Two will-o-wisps blazed in its eyes. Unlike the weakling skeletons, he wore a full set of armor. On one hand was a shield, and on the other was a large sword made of bones. I gulped down a mouthful of saliva and asked.
"Are you the skeleton knight? The one who"s said to be the strongest among skeletons?"
[I am a skeleton champion.]
"Ah, never mind then."
I got nervous for nothing! He was just a weakling after all.
[Skull Breaker, I will kill you!]
"Ha, you?"
[Uooooooooooh!]
Just like that, I successfully provoked the skeleton champion without even using the Provoke skill. The two will-o-wisps in his eyes showed his rage by burning even more fiercely. At the same time, he charged towards me.
He lightly leaped off the ground and struck down at me with his bone sword.
I dodged his attack and made him stumble backwards by tackling the part of his body unprotected by his shield. As I had even used Skin Strengthening Elixirs to strengthen my const.i.tution, my HP didn"t decrease for just tackling a named monster"s body. Even I had to admit that my body was incredibly tough.
[Kuk!]
"Your lower body is weak! That"s why just tackling can make you fall!"
As I gave him advice, I stabbed my spear into his head consecutively. After allowing three strong blows to hit him, he got up. By then, there was already a huge crack in his helmet.
[As expected of Skull Breaker! However, I, Etos, will not lose!]
"Don"t call me Skull Breaker!"
Also, a mere undead shouldn"t appeal his name! A named monster had a name, of course, but I didn"t know what I was supposed to do with it. If he wanted me to write his name down on a notebook and kill him, he visited the wrong series!
[If you defeat me, I will acknowledge you as a true Skull Breaker!]
"I don"t need you to acknowledge that!"
Annoyed, I once again performed consecutive stabs. Surprisingly, he seemed to have predicted when I would stab forward, as he jumped back and dodged my attack. Then he kicked a stone on the ground and aimed it towards me. The stone itself was crushed by Peika, but his style of fighting still made me tilt my head.
"Did he learn how to dodge my attacks after being hit before? This guy might be pretty useful!"
[Useful?]
"Too bad he"s an undead… Sorry, Etos. If you reincarnate, come visit our dojo. I"ll give you a 20 percent discount."
[Stop saying things I can"t understand, Skull Breaker!]
Etos shouted furiously and charged at me once more. His bone sword cut through the air with a bone-chilling sound, clearly aiming for my neck. Mm, it was the clearest attack out of all the monsters I had faced recently. However, his defense was still lacking!
"Use your shield to hold off your opponent! Is your shield just for looks!?"
I dug into his embrace using the gap he left wide open and thrust out my spear.
"Divine Speed, Heroic Strike!"
[Kuaaaak!]
Of course, my Heroic Strike boosted by Divine Speed easily shattered his cracked helmet and destroyed his skull. Poor Etos died without even a chance to leave behind a final word.
[You defeated the named monster, "Etos." You obtained a Residential Area Entrance Ticket as reward.]
[You obtained the t.i.tle, "Skull Breaker!" When fighting skeleton-type undead, your critical hit chance doubles and you can more quickly intimidate your enemy. Your critical damage increases by 50 percent when fighting all enemies with bones.]
"I really became a Skull Breaker, the h.e.l.l… Not to mention, for a t.i.tle using the word "skull," it"s specialized in breaking bones…"
Blaming Etos, I looked at the surrounding skeletons. The skeletons that were encircling me from before I even fought Etos trembled and started to back away.
"S-Skull Breaker."
"My skull will get broken."
"Run!"
"But we can"t run from Skull Breaker!"
Was this the intimidation effect? Just my existence could intimidate monsters. It was quite fun. Wait, with this, wouldn"t it be a piece of cake to break through the dungeon? With a smirk, I fixed my grip on my spear.
In truth, I really wanted to visit the Residential Area, but since I was under a 3 month time restraint, I wouldn"t be able to fully enjoy myself even if I went. I decided to think about it after I broke through the 30th floor.
What I had to worry about right now was the Red Dragon Cape… I mean, fast dungeon breakthroughs!