Ank

With not really any other option, my sister and I proceeded off the starting room, and we found ourselves in a slightly brighter irregular earth tunnel; illuminated by pulsing yellow roots that dig through the ground, ceiling and walls. Just a few meters ahead, the corridor branched in three different directions.

Once we had no clue whatsoever about where should we go, we just picked a random path ad followed it. And before long, we found the dirt we were in branching once again, this time we able to continue straight forward, or turn to the right. We took this last option, and found ourselves in yet another “room”; though its constitution was identical to the rest of the [Dungeon], it had a muddy puddle in the middle, and every few seconds a water drop fell from the ceiling.

“Oh, there’s something entangled between the roots”, Hunah pointed, looking up.

“[Summon: Fake blowgun]”, I made a slightly translucent green weapon for her, and after a few shots, she blew the item from the ceiling.

“A card of some type…?”, retrieving the drop as I de-summoned my spell, she read out loud: “’Super rare invitation card: with this, you and your friends have the privilege to re-enter this [Dungeon] indefinitely! You can even live here forever! Please, don’t let alone.’”, both of us stood in silence for a minute, but finally, unable to hurt the feelings of the [Dungeon], Hunah visibly forced herself to commemorate, shoving the card in a pocked: “Y- Yay…”

After that, things got only worse, though.

To get stuck in a murderous place wasn’t something that really got onto any of us, once that our end goal was to kill every [God], and the power gap between that dirt caves and our real targets was so unimaginably great, that we didn’t have the right to feel like that was impossible; even if we weren’t made of ice, and thought things sucked, and might even get carried away sometimes, like anyone else. But… exploring the room, we saw three more passages, beyond the one we came from, and I had finally to admit:

“It’s a labyrinth, isn’t it?”

“It definitely looks like a labyrinth.”

My sister and I sighed in unison.

Such unnecessary [Dungeon] design… Couldn’t that place be a simple straight line to the floor’s boss? We’d reach the same objective anyway, right? Why make us walk three times more?

Then a pair of [(D) Glyptodons] came from the passages beyond us.

“[Summon: Fake Shied, fake Blowgun, Chullachakis, Tiger Rattlesnake]”, I quickly burned into existence two armed little [level: 5] humanoids and four [level: 3] snakes.

My serpents quickly slithered towards both the monsters, as my little hoofed men mounted a defensive line between me and them.

As my attack summons were approaching, however, one of the [(D) Glyptodons] dashed straight froward, crushing and killing one of the serpents immediately; I still managed to inflict venom the creature, as it was aiming for the loud blowgun users, almost killing one of them, but it was clear that, if I tried to fight both of the monsters at the same time, things would get messy.

“Hunah.”

“I know”, and it seemed like my sister had reached the same conclusion, and was jumping all around also fighting by herself.

I lifted my hand to summon another serpent, but would this strategy work when I was alone in that fight? No, it wouldn’t.

While I was thinking, the monster attacked again, and this time it was one of the [Chullachakis] its new victim: the little hoofed man was crushed in a thousand magical particles and destroyed instantaneously by the charge. But then, something happened.

As the little summon was killed, the [(D) Glyptodon] stepped onto the shield my [Chullachaki] was using, and slipped on it, almost overturning.

“[Summon: Fake Shield]”, I conjured instead of more serpents, and checked on my [Magic: 308/575].

As the [(D) Glyptodon] turned around, I called my last humanoid summon closer, and narrowed the opponent’s possible targets to a single place: where I was.

Immediately, the damage sponge dashed, shaking the ground with each step, dirt falling from the ceiling, and approaching in a mortal charge. The monster not being the most agile, I didn’t wait for too long before jumping away with my humanoid summon:

“Left your shield”, I ordered the [Chullachaki], and we both dropped our protection on the ground.

And, just like I hoped, the [(D) Glyptodon] slid over the round semi-transparent summoned shields before destroying them, but this time with both frontal paws instead of just one, and it completely lost control of its charge: screaming, the monster fell, rolled for a few meters and shocked itself against one of the walls, capsized.

“[Summon: Fake blowgun]”, I equipped myself with venomous darts in both hands, discarding the tube, and quickly dashed for the exposed, unprotected belly of the monster. I jumped over the large creature, and dug both darts at the same time.

[Critical! 100% more damage!]

[Critical! 100% more damage!]

Fuck yes: the damage on the soft flesh and fragile organs just beneath was massive; and every single attack there was a critical:

[Critical! 100% more damage!]

[Critical! 100% more damage!]

[Critical! 100% more damage!]

Still, it wasn’t like my damage was absurdly high, and the [(D) Glyptodon] would just stand there, being killed: the monster started to shake itself, and scratching the air with its four paws, trying to get back up.

When my opponent was almost succeeding, though:

“[Summon: Fake shield]”, I conjured, and the creature’s grip slid again, and all its efforts were wasted.

My remaining summons joining in the attack, we barbarized the monster’s underside, and once the fake darts I was using as daggers broke, I reached with my own hands and somewhat sharp nails, thrusting my fists in the wounds and pulling flesh out.

My snakes slithered inside the torn skin, and my [Chullachaki] was feasting on the belly of the despaired [(D) Glyptodon], who still struggled to get up

The battle had a long way to go, though, and as I kept summoning [Fake Shield]s, I couldn’t tell what would end first, my [Magic], or the monster’s [Health]:

[Species: Glyptodon

HP: 753/1000]

[Name: Ank

MP: 280/575]

[Species: Glyptodon

HP: 613/1000]

[Name: Ank

MP: 200/575]

[Species: Glyptodon

HP: 419/1000]

[Name: Ank

MP: 114/575]

[Species: Glyptodon

HP: 101/1000]

[Name: Ank

MP: 50/575]

[Species: Glyptodon

HP: 33/1000]

[Name: Ank

MP: 0/575]

Differently from the time I fought against the previous jungle layer king, I lost that endurance battle, and I couldn’t keep the monster on its back anymore; and not only my [Magic] had exhausted, but also my stamina.

As the [(D) Glyptodon] turned up, and staggered forward, panting and with its eyes red from crying, I leaned against the earthy wall of the room, barely able to stand up, feeling even as if about to faint.

Thank goodness, that time I had also the venom and bleeding debuffs at my side.

Before the monster could give a second step, its intestines all fell on the ground through the damage my summons and I tore on the thing’s belly, all the while the [(D) Glyptodon] eyes turned behind its skull, and bloody vomit came out off its mouth.

I, then, looked over my shoulder, and just in time to see Huna with her dagger inside the mouth of the monster, pulling the thing’s out and bathing herself in blood, finishing her opponent. She checked on me, and we both lifted our thumbs up, as the creatures were vanishing and (thankfully) cleaning our bodies and clothes from their blood.

“What…?!”, Hunah then noticed something, trembling.

I followed her vision, and saw it too:

“Oh, yeah…”, I couldn’t keep this hidden from her for any longer, could I? “Dungeon monsters drop items”, I said, collecting the piece of meat my prey dropped.

“Okay, new plan: let’s kill every single monster in this labyrinth before moving to the next floor”, my sister said, suddenly filled with excitement as she held an elbow pad made of the monster’s hard shell.

I sighed, just accepting that she would convince me to go on a rampage with her like she’s been doing until then.

Well, at least for me there would be EXP.