[Stage eight: Complete]

[Save point reached]

[If you would like to move to the 9th stage of the dungeon, please step forward]

[Stage nine difficulty: level 10]

These commands were announced by the stage system. The same robotic voice Yuki heard when he either completed a level or was asking to allow a party member to leave.

Once Yuki had passed through the gateway, he was greeted with the marvelous sight of his next enemy. It looked to be a large slender figure. The monster in front of Yuki had little to no fat to the point where he looked to be starving, however, even while looking like that all of his muscles looked to be in peak form. Just like the 7th stage's mini boss, this one also had red skin.

Instead of eyes, the monster had horns pointing outwards from both its eye sockets. It's armour looked to be make of bones. Even his weapons, which were claws stretching from his fists that looked to be made of bone. The monster breathed heavily, however, it had a large smile on its face as it looked downwards.

The terrain was slightly different from all the other stages. The ground was completely black, as for the cracks which each stage had due to being dry for decades or centuries or even mellina, they were filled with more magma than the previous stages. So much so that some point of the stage had lava leaking out of their cracks. Unlike any of the previous stages, this one didn't have any small boulders or other structures, it was just an open field.

While this may have been terrifying to many, Yuki didn't think much of it. Even though his strength increasing potion effects had worn off, Yuki still walked through the tunnel. As his foot stepped out, the scrawny demon began to wobble from right to left. After doing so for a few seconds, the demon looked to fall, however instead of falling to the flood, he disappeared from Yuki's line of vision.

This made Yuki go into a state of distress. He didn't know what was happening and he didn't have any way of knowing when and where his enemy would attack. To me the situation was worse, Yuki kept hearing the sound of slicing. He wasn't quite sure if it was from the demon cutting through the air itself or if it were its movements. All Yuki knew was that it wasn't a good thing.

Even as Yuki moved his eyes in every direction, he wasn't able to pick up any movement. Not even a shadow passed by his line of vision. Just as a drop of sweat dropped from Yuki's head, he was struck with a sharp pain in his chest. In front of Yuki was the demon, continuing to look down at the ground. Its mouth opened even wider as it smilied. A small smoke cloud left its mouth as the demon continued to breath heavily.

Yuki fell to his knees as the demon removed its bone constructed long claws from Yuki's chest. As the demon did that, Yuki fell on his face to the ground-blood leaking out of him at an extremely fast rate.

"I can't die, not yet. I got lucky, I'm pretty sure it missed my heart so I can hold out a bit longer. I just have to stay put for now until it leaves me alone. I need to drink a full status recovery potion immediately. I don't know how much longer I can hold out for," said Yuki.

As Yuki continued to try to hold on for his dear life, it became increasingly harder for him. At the rate he was losing blood, it wouldn't be much longer until he would die of blood loss.

"Don't close your eyes or you'll die. Don't close your eyes or you'll die. Don't close your eyes or you'll die," Yuki repeated to himself.

No matter how many times Yuki tried to hold on, it was impossible. His eyes grew to be as heavy as tons. As they began to lose their colour and Yuki's eyelids began to close on their own, Yuki's ears picked up the sound of slashing once more.

"Are you kidding me? You're seriously going to attack me even though I'm basically dead," these were the words Yuki thought of.

In pure anger, Yuki summoned the courage to sit properly and take out a potion from his inventory.

"Just you wait. Let me boost my speed and attack and we'll see who'll be laughing last," Yuki said.

[Open inventory]

Yuki pulled out a full status recovery potion as well as a speed boost potion from his inventory. The full restore potion being a lime green liquid while the speed boost potion being sky blue.

"I was hoping for some magical vitality or desperation state to rescue me and help me defeat you like I was a main character in some tv show. Well too bad, I guess I have to earn everything on my own," Yuki yelled out as he opened both the potions and drank them at the same time.

While Yuki did recover from his initial injuries, he was placed into a state of pain which was comparable to the one he was just in. He had reached the maximum amount of potions he could consume within the assigned time limit of 24 hours.

Yuki rolled around in the ground in pain as he held his arms around his chest in hopes of easing the pain.

"ZERO!" Yuki called out.

Within an instant Yuki's pain was taken away. While Yuki did wonder why Zero only recovered his body when he was asked, however, even he knew the reason. Yuki wanted to do everything on his own and hated relying on others, but due to him needing to rely on people since he was in life or death situations all the time, Zero only helped Yuki when he was asked.

"Thank you," said Yuki even though he didn't know if Zero heard him.

"Now where were we?" Yuki asked rhetorically.

The demon which had almost killed Yuki moments ago struck once more. It had taken him a long time to launch his attack but it didn't matter since Yuki couldn't keep up with him.

However right before his claw could reach Yuki, it was pushed away by Yuki since the speed boost potion he had just drank allowed him to at least see the demon right before he attempted his attack.

"This is gonna be fun," said Yuki.