If I was going to be stabbing things with my legs, I may as well enhance the imbue elements spell. It would increase the power behind my attacks, and with the highest level effect, I would have a chance of striking twice… however that worked.

Maybe those icicles would also help a bit. Who knew? I doubted the fire effect would do much, but if three out of four effects would work, I’d be happy.

I increased the distance between me and the sand creature and confirmed I wanted to enhance the imbue elements ability. One rank at a time, the information flooded my brain. I had to dodge two sand bolts that were thrown at me as I was undergoing the changes, but the tell before they were fired was clear enough to easily dodge those, even as my body experienced pain at some points of the process.

After the spell was etched into my brain, I immediately cast it and recast my barrier spell as well. I then charged at the sand creature and started hacking away at it with my legs. Bit by bit, I started scraping off sand. The creature replied with attacks of its own. Appendages grew and tried to slash at me. Likewise, it kept using its sand bolt ability, which was easily blocked by my barrier.

My barrier took quite a few hits, but the explosion effect never triggered, which reinforced the impression that this creature’s attacks were weak. I kept up my flurry of attacks with my many legs.

The water and fire effects that were included in this imbuement did not seem to do anything. I had a few icicles appear in mid-air that flew out to strike the creature, but they seemed to be a weaker version of my ice lance and thus didn’t do much in terms of damage.

I could, however, feel the effects of the earthen blessing. My attacks had more force behind them, and I did manage to scrape off the sand at a far faster rate than I would when using spells. The best part was that this had hardly cost me any mana.

As for the wind effect, it was amazing. Sometimes, when my legs struck, they would simply be pulled back to where they were a fraction of a second before the impact, and strike again. I couldn’t even notice them being pulled back, all I knew was that I’d struck twice. This was far more powerful than I could have imagined, especially against a creature like this.

The creature did not seem bothered by sand falling off of its body. It was fixated on spitting out bolts and growing appendages, which I allowed to attack me, just so I could stand still and continue my flurry of attacks.

Eventually, it appeared that I had removed enough sand from the creature to expose something underneath it. I could see a few parts of what was hidden under all the sand. Greenish “skin” started getting exposed in several spots where I had made dents in its “armor”.

I continued hacking and stabbing to expand those dents. Some of my attacks hit the greenish body and I noticed a slimy, sticky substance stuck on my legs. It appeared I was dealing with some sort of slime.

I had dealt with slimes on rare occasions. While I couldn’t call myself experienced with these creatures, I had never seen, or heard, about any slime like this existing. Slimes are transparent, and have one weak spot, their core. This specific slime was covered in too much armor to even see where the core was located.

The slime attacked me again with a weak bolt of sand, and my explosion triggered, sending a shockwave of holy energy in a pulse away from me. I saw it burn the exposed outer membrane of the slime, but knew that if I was correct, it would hardly do any damage to it.

Confident that I could finish this before I had to cast my barrier again, I kept up the attack and hacked away more sand until I could make out more of the creature’s body. Eventually, I had created a hole large enough that I could see a red orb the size of a fist floating in the creature.

I fired a well-aimed high-velocity ice lance at it and saw the icicle easily pierce, and then impale, the creature’s vulnerable core.

With that, I stepped back, as I knew the creature was dead.

You have killed a Burrower Sand Slime: EXP+ 2250

Level Up!

Kealyna has reached level 7!

You have been awarded 75 EP.

Level Up!

Kealyna has reached level 8!

You have been awarded 75 EP.

Achievement earned: Who’s the boss now?

Kill a dungeon floor boss.

You have been awarded 150 EP.

You have been awarded 300 EXP.

Hidden requirement for future evolution complete.

The creature before me seemed to lose all consistency and sink into a pile of sand mixed with slime. I had turned my attention to the messages that had just appeared when I heard the grinding of stone coming from the wall that was across from where I entered.

Instinctively, I ran back to the archway and turned around to see what was going on. I thought that I might have activated another trap by accident, but instead, the wall was slowly moving down into the floor.

I could see an opening behind the wall come into view and realized that it was some kind of passage that seemed to unlock with the death of the…

I turned my attention to the last message that was still before me in a blue square.

… Floor boss.

I was conflicted. I wanted to explore this dungeon further as this first floor did not seem to have what I needed from this dungeon: a treasure. I was scared that this wall may close again after I’d passed through, locking me up inside this dungeon.

Elysa, you seem to want me to explore a dungeon. Can you tell me how they work?

This wall will not close again until you leave the dungeon.

Dungeons cannot close pathways that open after killing certain monsters such as floor bosses. This can only be done after the creatures that trigger these mechanics have been respawned by the dungeon core, which can only happen after all foreign entities have left the dungeon’s premises.

That was exactly the information I was looking for. Thank you, Elysa.

I was still anxious about this, but I didn’t recall this blessing ever lying to me. Incomplete information, sure, but this time it specifically said that that wall would not close again until I’d left the dungeon.

I decided to venture deeper.

Instead of a tunnel or hallway, I entered another large, open area. Although this one was completely dark. Even with my spider vision, I could hardly make out anything. It was as if this was a special kind of darkness, which sent shivers down my spine.

I created a flame spell to illuminate my surroundings. What came into my view were ruins… lots of them.

Walls that barely stood up, buildings without roofs and with holes in their ramparts, wooden towers that looked as if the slightest breeze would cause them to collapse, and, perhaps the most ominous of all, I could see skeletons…

Before me was an obviously abandoned stone city, with skeletons spread all over the place. Without thinking twice, I chose to upgrade the Holy Pulse enhancement. I just knew there were going to be undead here. The lack of anything moving around all but confirmed it.

The spell’s knowledge was pushed into my brain, which actually hurt quite a bit. I remained where I was, not wanting to disturb anything on this floor.

After I had enhanced the spell, I slowly made my way to one of the lone buildings on the abandoned city’s outskirts. I noticed that there were a few small buildings like these that were mostly intact. They looked to be used for storage, as they were too small for anyone to live in.

I hoped that would mean there could be treasure inside. I doubted it would be good, but treasure was treasure. I needed it for an achievement, after all.

Hell, I would need to kill something undead as well for an achievement, so I kind of hoped to run into at least one undead creature, but the sheer number of skeletons that was spread out throughout this place had me shivering.

I made sure to recast my barrier so it was at full strength. I would search these smaller buildings while being on the lookout for any undead creatures coming my way.

I reached the first small building and peeked inside. I couldn’t enter it because my abdomen was too large. As I had suspected, it was a storage unit. Planks that were once fastened to the walls were now laying on the floor, as well as broken pots and whatever their contents were. Nothing was recognizable anymore.

That was a bit of a letdown, but there were many more buildings like this. There was also the city itself. I shuddered at the thought of what might hide inside some of the larger buildings.