⬧⬨⬧
Having finally reached the mountain’s peak, I found a massive bird with a bright red body waiting for me. “Pikwaaaaw!”
“Whoa! What a cool-looking boss!”
Its name was Vanishing Firebird. According to the guide, it was always airborne, making it the toughest out of all the level 25 bosses.
With its tail feathers fanned out like a peacock, it looked truly majestic. I’ve absolutely gotta catch this one!
“Let’s go, firebird!” I took aim with my bow.
“Piiiii!”
As the boss rose higher into the air with a powerful beat of its wings, it lobbed countless fireballs at me from its tail feathers. There had to be over a hundred of them! Although each was small, for someone limited to 1 HP, nothing was more dangerous than this sort of scattershot attack.
But I didn’t even flinch. “They’re not getting through my evolved Puffster army! Go get ’em!”
“Currrssss!”
Eleven murky black arrows shot into the sky one after another. The firebird looked down unimpressed, like it considered my efforts futile...but a moment later, its beak was agape with shock. Each miasma-cloaked arrow split into ten in midair, creating a total of 110 arrows that destroyed every single one of the firebird’s bullets before embedding themselves in its body!
“Pikwaaawk?!”
“Heh.” I looked up at the suffering bird and grinned. “How d’you like that? Now that they’ve evolved into shadow weapons, they’ve got this skill called Shade Clone!”
Just as the name suggested, Shade Clone could create nine copies of a shadow weapon. Each copy only had half the stats of the original and could only exist for just ten seconds, but it was more than useful when applied to arrows.
My damage boost skills were triggering as each arrow hit its target, leaving the firebird screeching in pain. Next, I relied on a special perk I’d gained as a high summoner.
“Back to me, all of you.” All eleven arrows teleported to me without costing me any MP.
I never had to worry about keeping some arrows in reserve. As an ordinary summoner, I’d had to recall my arrows one by one using Summon Return, but now they were coming back automatically. I effectively had infinite ammo, not to mention each one could split into ten.
“Pii, piiii!”
“Sorry, firebird, but I’m going to keep this up for as long as it takes to finish you.”
As a bow wielder, a massive bird was little more than easy prey. I aimed my weapon proudly as I loosed successive arrows at the panicking firebird.
✦ ✦ ✦
Skill active: Genocide Killer! Damage doubled!
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!
With multiple damage-boosting skills triggering every time, my arrows were hitting the firebird for over 24 times their base damage.
Before long, the boss began to fall, too weak to continue flying. “Piii... Pikwaaa...!” But the firebird wasn’t giving up that easily. With its last ounce of strength, it beat its wings to direct its descent straight for me.
Nice, a dive-bomb attack! What kind of man would I be if I didn’t take this head-on?! I threw my bow aside and balled my fist.
“Pikwaaaaw!”
“Yeah! Bring it on, firebird! Let’s settle this once and for all!” I threw my fist at the massive bird’s sharp beak.
✦ ✦ ✦
Skill active: Twisted! Deal triple damage at close range for three seconds after throwing your bow away!
Skill active: Up Close and Personal! Deal ten percent extra damage at close range!
Skill active: God-Killing Fist! Your hand is invincible from the wrist to the fingertips while throwing a punch! All forms of damage, knockback, and status effects are negated!
My fist took on the entire brunt of the massive bird’s power. A thunderous crash followed by a shock wave swept across the mountain top, rippling my hair in the resulting wind.
“Pikwa...awk!” The firebird slammed into the ground, its beak cracked—this battle was over.
✦ ✦ ✦
Congratulations! You successfully soloed the Vanishing Firebird dungeon boss!
Yuri, Puffster Double Twin Mk II 2nd, and all summoned monsters gained copious experience!
You gained an ultrarare item: Firebird Drumstick!
Taming successful! The Vanishing Firechirper boss monster became your ally!
You can now summon this boss with its level reduced to 1!
“I win this one, firebird.” I even got some meat out of it.
Given that its strategy had involved firing wide-ranging attacks from the above, I expected to get a chimera capable of air strikes if I combined the meat with something explosive. I could even make it finish with a kamikaze attack.
“Pii pii!” The firebird gave me a cute squeak. The sorry thing had been renamed to Vanishing Firechirper now that its level had been reduced to 1.
“Huh?” What’s a firechirper, anyhow?
The description read, “A defeated bird, knocked to the ground and turned into an oversized chicken. Maybe it’s tasty.” I don’t wanna find out.
I took a look at the tamed boss’s status and saw it had the Navigation skill, just like a living weapon, but there was also a note about its flight being limited to flying a short time below a particular height. Sadly, I couldn’t just ride it for some easy fast travel.
“All right. You’re pet number 2 from now on. Welcome to the family, Chirpster.”
“Piiiwaa!”
When I petted Chirpster’s fluffy feathers, he spread his wings wide in delight.
Now that I had all the materials I needed, I figured there was no reason not to get a few chimeras ready in preparation for the event the next day. I don’t even know what sort of battle it’s gonna be, but whatever it is, I’m gonna win it!
[Get Ready] General Discussion Thread 231 [For PvP!]