Message from Korin:
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH! I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOST! STUPID BOSS USED CHEATS! (;ω;)
“Whoa?!” It felt like Korin was screaming at me through the message that popped up.
Already?! She didn’t even last three minutes! How’d the Bug Eater God beat speedy little Korin that quickly?
“I figured the Bug Eater God’s Forest was worth checking out since it’s a new dungeon that wasn’t here during the beta test... I wasn’t expecting a tough boss...”
The caterpillars were all so weak that I’d been assuming the whole dungeon was doable at about level 15.
Welp, I won’t learn anything by thinking about it. I gripped my bow tight and headed through the door.
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⬧⬨⬧
Beyond the door was an open space surrounded by trees. It felt tranquil here as I watched butterflies flutter through the air with soft beats of their wings.
“It’s a boss area all right, but it’s the total opposite of the battle arena I found in the tomb dungeon. Now where’s the boss?”
I was still scanning my eyes over the area when a mighty rumble shook the surroundings and the ground before me exploded!
“Whoa?!”
Amid a cloud of dirt, another dragonplant made its appearance from the surface of the ground. “Grrrgrraaaaaaaaaaaaagh!”
✦ ✦ ✦
Encountered a boss monster: Gigantic Dragonplant.
Recommended level: 35.
I’m supposed to be level 35?! How am I gonna get through this at level 22?! And what even is this thing?
The creature’s head sprouted up from the ground like a morning glory, and then its body emerged. Then more of its body appeared. Then some more...
How tall’s it gonna get?!
The ordinary dragonplant had been massive at about ten meters tall, but this thing would have towered over it. I was rooted to the spot in astonishment as the Gigantic Dragonplant went on rising until it loomed high above the surrounding trees.
It’s gotta be over a hundred meters tall!
“Grrrgragragrraaah!” As its head far above roared, the Gigantic Dragonplant’s body unleashed numerous tentacles, each broader than my entire body!
“Let’s go, Puffster squad! Power Burst! Speed Burst!”
I began rapidly shooting misty arrows at the approaching tentacles. Buffed by my arts, they shot out like obsidian lasers, knocking tentacles out of the air one after another. One tentacle fell, then another, and the number kept on decreasing until...
“Grrgaaaaaah!”
I’d failed to take out every last one! Puffs six through eleven weren’t as experienced as the others. They’d leveled up enough to pierce the thick flesh of the tentacles, but not enough to deal a finishing blow.
I tried to leap back, but I was too late. Four of the tentacles wrapped themselves around me and began crushing my whole body.
“Argh!”
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Skill active: Last Stand! Survived with 1 HP after taking fatal damage!
Skill active: Last Stand! Survived with 1 HP after taking fatal damage!
Skill active: Last Stand! Survived with 1 HP after taking fatal damage!
Skill active: Last Stand! Survived with 1 HP after taking fatal damage!
Skill active: Last Stand! Survived with 1 HP after taking fatal damage!
Countless skill activation messages filled my head. Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!
No matter how high my luck, Last Stand wasn’t guaranteed to trigger every time. The probability was around ninety-nine percent, but the one percent of times when it failed would mean game over. I was beginning to panic as purple blotches began to dot my skin under the crushing pressure.
“Currrrsssss!” Help finally arrived. All my arrows rushed back to me to begin attacking the tentacles stringing me up. They formed a ring around the tentacle binding one of my arms, then they all span in a circle, slicing through it like a saw! None of my damage-boosting skills could trigger while they were acting independently like this, but when they worked together, their combined power was enough to cut through the tentacle in just ten seconds.
I’m not beaten yet! I grabbed Puffster with my liberated arm, then swung him like a sword, slicing through the remaining tentacles. With my many damage-boosting skills triggering, I was free in no time.
“Grrgahgaaah!” The Gigantic Dragonplant sent its tentacles flying at me once more.
I wasn’t about to fall for the same trick twice. I briefly touched my boot and gave an order to the Living Armor Knight that dwelled within. “Mor, your Flash skill!”
“Hrrr!”
I ran clear of the oncoming vines, my body moving like the wind. In no time at all, I’d dodged the swarm of tentacles and was firing a volley of arrows from a safe distance.
This was the Living Armor Knight’s Flash skill. It let me move at ten times my normal speed for five seconds.
Mor couldn’t use his Evil Sword Summoning skill to call up a swarm of living weapons now that he was leveled down, but as long as he could use Flash, I was more than glad to have him on my side.
“Now’s our chance! Hyper Power Burst, Hyper Speed Burst!”
With a major boost from my arts, my underlings accelerated wildly and smashed into the face of the dragonplant a hundred meters above us, dealing critical damage!
✦ ✦ ✦
Skill active: Giant Killer! Damage boosted ten percent!
Skill active: Fatal Strike! Damage doubled!
Skill active: Absolute Zero! Damage doubled!
Critical hit! Triple damage dealt to a weak point!
Skill active: Merciless Death God! Critical damage boosted by a further thirty percent!
This collection of damage boost skills gave me over twelve times standard damage. It had the Gigantic Dragonplant howling in agony.
“There’s more where that came from! Arts activate: Summon Return!”
I just have to keep this up and I’ve got this, I told myself as I called my Puffster army back to me and prepared to fire them from the bow once more.
But it wasn’t going to be that easy. A massive, writhing tentacle sprouted from the dragonplant’s back, then a flower bloomed at its tip with petals spread so wide that it looked like the sun.
Now what?
I wasn’t left wondering for long. “Grrrrrrrrrrrrrgaaaaah!” The flower’s petals shone with bright light, then it fired a huge laser beam!
“What the heck?!”
The beam flew straight at me with ten times the speed of the tentacle attack, giving me no time to activate Flash. I was completely helpless as blinding white light filled my vision!
“Urgh?!”
✦ ✦ ✦
Skill active: Last Stand! Survived with 1 HP after taking fatal damage!
Even as the shock wave sent me flying backward, I felt strangely safe.
Few players could have withstood this attack. They’d be beaten instantly, leaving them just as angry as Korin. But luckily for me, my play style was based around Last Stand. The continuous damage dealt by the tentacles had been a far greater threat than a beam designed to melt players with a single shot.
My idol outfit exposed my shoulders and armpits at the best of times, but now the badly burned dress was even more revealing. Still, I was back on my feet and ready to counterattack.
But then I noticed something was very wrong.
✦ ✦ ✦
You entered Scorched Earth’s damage zone! You’ll take 1% of your max HP as damage every second!
Skill active: Last Stand! Survived with 1 HP after taking fatal damage!
Skill active: Last Stand! Survived with 1 HP after taking fatal damage!
Skill active: Last Stand! Survived with 1 HP after taking fatal damage!
Skill active: Last Stand! Survived with 1 HP after taking fatal damage!
Skill active: Last Stand! Survived with 1 HP after taking fatal damage!
Skill active: Last Stand! Survived with 1 HP after taking fatal damage!
“Wh-What?!” Looking down at my feet, I realized that the boss’s laser beam had turned the ground to molten rock.
Wait...so that attack turns everything it hits into a damage-dealing zone?! The boss arena isn’t that wide! If it starts spamming this attack, I’m done! Korin had been right—this boss was basically cheating.
I rolled clear of the scorched earth, drew my bow, then took aim. But the sight before me was the stuff of nightmares.
“Grrrrrrgaaaaaah!” Six more of the same flower had already blossomed from the dragon’s massive back! They all lit up at once and fired their beams at the ground where I was standing.
“Huh?!” I could only conclude one thing: I’ve already lost.
I could handle the beams themselves, but not the damage zones they’d leave behind. With seven of them firing at once, the Scorched Earth effect would consume the entire area. As I waited for the light to engulf me, I gave up.
“Hrrrrrrrrrrr!”