Chapter 73 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

POV Carl

I watched as Tristan forced down the jerky we got from the orc monsters. It was quite funny how he could barely stomach eating it, while I was simply glad I could eat. I had expected my perspective to have changed after eating good food for so long, but it seems that no matter what I eat, it still tastes good. A full stomach is always better than an empty one.

My thoughts shifted to the future. I was incredibly nervous about the coming challenge, but excited as well, because as soon as I laid eyes upon the monster that was obviously the final challenge of this place, I could immediately see the power it had.

Fortunately, we have fought a similar kind before, but they were extremely rare and powerful monsters. Every other orc was a physical fighter; now sometimes they did have bows, but only a few actually used magic, and the boss was one of the ones that used magic.

Now, normally when you get close to a mage, the fight is all but over, unless they have some defensive spells, and powerful ones at that. This logic didn't seem to apply to them. Although their spell work is slower and a bit weaker than the mages I am used to, they make up for that fact by actually being quite terrifying up close.

I nearly lost my life the first time I fought this type of monster. It blocked my attack with a staff that I expected to crush through and finish the fight right there. Instead, it was able to block and actually deliver a painful attack. If the staff had had a spike, I might not be here to challenge another one.

We have fought only five of this type of monsters, even after clearing this entire strange place. I ran through every one of their moves and what kind of skills they used. What I didn’t like was their variety of spells; they mimicked mages too much in that aspect.

When I felt that the food we ate was properly settled, I stood up and started to stretch. Over the course of our adventures, I no longer had to tell Tristan to do the same; he started to do them all by himself.

He would be a help in this fight, especially with his skill that allows him to slow down enemies by slowly freezing them. Unfortunately, it doesn't actually freeze them, just mimics the effects freezing has on movement, but it's still good enough.

Once again, I wished we had more members, but we didn’t have anyone else we could trust, something I should work on fixing after this. Quite a few of the other top runners were also solo, but I knew that they teamed up with others if needed. I should have learned that it was going to be important for me to be able to do that as well.

"Let's go. Don’t attack unless there is an excellent opportunity. This fight might go on for a little while, and I need the slow effect to keep going," I said, and Tristan immediately responded, "I know, I know, you have told me many times. Let's finish this."

I had to agree with him. I was quite worried that the next floor would have opened by now, but fortunately, that hadn’t happened yet. I readied my skills and my weapon as I indicated for us to start sneaking in.

What I wanted was to get as close as possible, as I didn’t want this to become a mage fight. Tristan wouldn’t be able to handle the monster, and I wouldn’t do that well in a spell battle as well. The monster was big, really big, and I was kind of envious of those muscles.

The gear they were wearing was quite interesting, made from leather and bones, yet surprisingly durable. Perhaps people have underestimated bones, especially from evolved creatures. We were only about 20 meters away before the monster finally turned from its worktable.

It spoke in its guttural language as I started to rush. Unfortunately, it stopped the spell it was trying to cast. Instead, it reached for something on the table, and then I felt mana flowing into whatever it picked up. Was it some kind of bomb?

To my surprise, the monster threw it to the side, but it never hit the floor. It stayed hovering a few inches off the ground. Then it started to reconfigure itself, but by that time, I had reached the monster. It was able to block my first attack with its staff. Still, my attack was strong, and I was able to make quite a deep cut into the staff. This time, however, I knew to back off as soon as I could.

I was able to just get far enough away that its attack missed me, but it was already advancing incredibly fast. I barely had time to defend, and I knew that it would overwhelm me soon, but finally, I saw its skin turn a little bit blue, meaning Tristan had successfully used his skill.

Immediately, the balance of power changed, and for the first time since the start of the battle, I was able to start landing hits. So, it came as a complete surprise when I needed to dodge a fireball that came from my right.

"The floating stuff, the monster threw, is some kind of fireball spell contraption, and it's charging up again. I'm guessing a fireball every six to ten seconds?" Tristan yelled, and I cursed.

He needed to keep the skill up, and if he was to cast another spell, it would drop. I suspected that destroying that contraption would be easy, but as I tried to get close, I found myself being pressed quite hard.

The staff now had a green glow to it, making it tougher and hit a lot harder, but let's see who would win. I dug deep and pulled up my mana, powering my skills to their limits. Every hit I made took chips out of the staff, and while I did have to back off and dodge a few fireballs, I felt victory at hand. Then the monster clapped his hands, and I was blown away by a shockwave of sound by about ten meters.

I was a bit disoriented, but even then, I was already heading back. Unfortunately, the monster was doing something with the contraption, pulling it apart and trying to cast some spell. I rushed as fast as I could, but I felt I wasn’t going to be fast enough.

My glaive was high above me and already heading downwards, glowing from the skills I imbued into it, but there was a smirk on the monster's face, and I felt the spell coalescing.

The monster's arms were now high up, and a fire started to gather between them. Just before the fire truly started to get dangerous, an ice spike hit the monster just under its armpit. That broke its concentration, and the spell fizzled out. The next moment, I was able to cleave from the shoulder downwards, enough to destroy its heart, ending the fight.

The monster collapsed lifeless, but I soon followed as I had put everything into this fight and felt completely drained. Tristan wasn’t in a much better state, but at least he was good enough that he could still walk around.

"What an amazing place, look at all those carvings. They are quite worn out but obviously a civilization had made this place. Do you think it’s from a real-world example, or is this all made-up by the dungeon?" Tristan asked.

I didn't want to answer; I just wanted to sleep. That monster had hit me three times, and those places hurt quite a lot. It was at this moment that I felt a paper tear and heard a distinct sound that meant new dungeon rooms were opened. "Son of a bitch, there are new dungeon rooms available. Where is the way out of here, Tristan?" I said while trying to get up.

"For God's sake, lay down. We haven’t even looked at the loot, and you already want to rush to another fight. You need to recover, but I will focus on trying to find the way out. Usually, there is one, at least other quests seemed to indicate that places like this should have a fast way out of them," Tristan replied.

I wanted to argue, but he was right. There was obviously quite a lot of loot in this room. Unfortunately, it seemed that the monster had dropped a staff. "Wait, the monster dropped a staff?"

Tristan immediately stopped looking over the books on the table the monster had worked on when we got here. He rushed over and started to inspect it. "It’s hard to tell. I’m not an expert in identifying items, but I think it will fetch quite a high price, especially with elemental mages. Unfortunately, I think the empowerment it used isn't an innate skill of the staff."

That was unfortunate news, but this small bit of excitement drained the last of my strength. Even though the monster was gone, I did push myself up to walk a little bit further away before I passed out.