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Only came back home a few hours ago and finally finished it!

Hope you like this change of pace and seeing a bit more action again!

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Chapter 45: Minds Astray

Running to the side and throwing himself between two descending blades, Makoto was able to finally break free of the circle and just in time too.

"Flame Barrage!"

Following Lilliana's shout a blazing serpent of pure fire crashed into the group of Undead, immediately applying the 'Aflame' status effect and devouring 2 or 3 of them whole.

Giving a thumbs up to the short Mage he could see how she immediately evaded his gaze, just like she had already been doing all day.

Sighing deeply about the way she behaved he only had a few seconds to contemplate on when she would finally be like before as a surviving Undead burning like a Human torch was currently running towards him, grabbing his immediate attention.

Unable to apply any of his own status effects he just slashed against the resilient thing and watched the flame DoT do most of the work for him.

A deathly growl later a shower of experience enveloped him once again.

Makoto and the rest of his party were currently on the first floor of the Labyrinth, once again hunting for experience and only using Sharon as a Scout for most of the fights.

Surprisingly enough she never seemed to be bothered by her menial task of counting the enemies ahead only to quickly come back and give her short report.

Makoto knew that he would never have been cut out for work like that as the front lines was his field of expertise.

After yesterdays turn of events, Lilliana was unwilling to look him in the eye even when she talked with him.

Trying not to worry about it too much for now, he quickly checked his gear for any problems and then led them all down another bend.

It wasn't too surprising that Makoto was the leader of the party even though he never asked for it but the logic was quite simple, he was the only melee in the party and should Sharon ever miss an enemy he would at least be able to fight on even grounds with it unlike the rest of his party that had to play with a bit more distance in mind.

Overall it was a safe and quick way to explore the ever changing first floor of the Labyrinth, even if he was already starting to feel sick and tired going through the same dimly lit maze for the hundredth time now.

It had only been exciting for the first few ventures and it soon enough just turned out to be a gigantic headache as even encountering enemies was an uncommon event, they mostly just walked in complete silence, always staying vigilante for an ambush that never seemed to come.

With the silence, Makoto's mind returned back to Lilliana and the way she was acting.

Did she really feel so guilty of her own actions that she didn't even dare to look him in the eye?

Honestly he thought it was quite childish in a way but what can you do?

Sighing once again and cursing his luck for thinking that everything had been going great not even a day ago the party soon enough encountered Sharon again that had a frantic look on her face and was already waving from far away in complete panic.

Naturally they had devised a few ways of communication with her but even though this had never been one it clearly was the 'Get the fuck out of here now big boy is coming!' signal.

Unable to even grin about his own thought process his face soon enough became solemn as he watched a gigantic Labyrinth Boar, easily towering 25 feet crash around a bend and immediately run after the sprinting Sharon.

"Get ready for combat!"

Unsheathing his sword and giving a quick glance to both Sanja and Lilliana to make sure that they had heard him, he felt his blood surge through him and with a deep growl from a dark corner of his mind Makoto exploded into a run.

Feeling his crimson eyes give off a dim light he quickly reached Sharon and shot past her with ever growing steps and tempo.

Facing this monster of a pig head on and seeing its gigantic tusks was something that would have scared any warrior but to Makoto it was yet another challenge he had to overcome.

Finally able to see its name he felt a cold chill run down his spine but he had no intention of lowering his speed in the least.

Labyrinth Boar Alpha: Boss Monster lvl 30

Not only was the thing 7 levels above him it was even classified as a boss monster.

Clearly something out of his league by more than a bit.

Well aware that even Sharon with her high Agility had been unable to outrun this beast, any idea of fleeing from it was immediately dropped so the only way to come out of this alive was to simply kill the little shit.

Grinning like a mad man and feeling a strange desire to eat some barbeque ribs, Makoto finally reached the muscle packed boar, ramming his sword forward and feeling his arms immediately going numb at the initial impact.

Well aware that he would be unable to even make it drop its speed at this point he quickly used his Willpower stat for the fist time in quite a while, pushing all of his stats up by nearly 20% for 3 seconds which allowed him to not only push his sword into its thick skull but even slow its speed drastically.

Critical hit!

1298 Damage dealt!

You have put a status effect on your opponent!

Bleed: -42 hp every 2 seconds for 28 second.

Unable to push against this behemoth of a boar anymore, Makoto quickly freed his sword and rolled to the side.

"Scattershot! Slingshot!"

Sharon was not hesitating at all with her Skills and a Volley of arrows rained from the ceiling while a net suddenly wrapped around the front legs of the boar, effectively tying them together and disabling it for the time being.

"Flame Barrage! Ice Needles!"

Again a snake of fire appeared out of nowhere followed by a hail of lances of ice that dug deep into the Boss Monster, making it squeal in pain which in turn put a grin on Makoto's face as he stood up.

Not wasting any time while capitalizing on the short time frame that Sharon had given them he quickly used every Combat Skill he had and was able to inflict a 'poisoned' and 'slowed' status effect together with the usual 'bleed' before the boar was back on its legs, having lost a fifth of its health and raging like a mad bull.

Spinning around a lot quicker than you would normally think from such a massive and bulky body, one of the tusks squarely hit Makoto into his chest, effectively knocking him into the air while his lungs nearly collapsed from the blow.

You have received 732 Damage!

You have received a status effect!

Winded: -15% stat reduction for 10 seconds.

Cursing his luck while trying to get some air into his hurting lungs, Makoto barely evaded yet another swipe from the tusks.

Following a gust of wind an arrow of light crashed into the gigantic Boar and went through its entire body while also pushing it back a few feet.

It was the most powerful Skill Sharon could use called 'Dawnlight'.

The cooldown for using it was quite hefty with it being nearly 4 hours so it was an absolutely emergency Skill but it packed quite the punch and inflicted 500% the Damage from a normal hit.

It also had added knockback and armor penetration which made it even more useful but as always it could only be used every 4 hours.

The other big problem with the Skill was that the incredibly Damage that it did pulled any and all aggro even from the best tank so completely forgetting about Makoto, the boar was now focusing Sharon and judging by its deep roar it was not happy.

Immediately distancing herself from Sanja and Lilliana as to not pull the thing in their direction, Makoto watched her shoot arrow after arrow while dodging to the side.

Finally freed from the status effect and his health back in a manageable position he quickly ran back to his rampaging barbeque ribs.

"Little shit, lets see you ignore me if I do this."

Not showing any mercy and directly behind it now he shoved his sword up its... well I don't think I have to explain that part, and twisted and turned his blade with a visible grin after hearing the squeals of pain and agony.

"That's it big boy, come to Papa and his big sword."

Watching the bleeding orifice disappear he was once again faced with an enraged Boar.

Showing the monster a big smile he waved his sword in front of its eyes, reminding the thing what had just happened and without even having to wait 1 second it charged towards him once again, lost in a fit of rage.

Spinning on the spot and using his crimson cloak in the same manner as a bullfighter, he watched the stupid thing run right past him and headfirst into a wall.

You have successfully tricked your opponent!

+1 Intelligence!

Surprised about seeing this message only now it didn't take long for him to figure out why he had never gotten it until now.

When had he ever fought with his wits until now? Most of the time he won his battles via either cruel means, brute strength or simply relying on intuition and luck but there had never really been any intention of using his environment against his opponent until now.

Wondering if he had turned into the typical muscles for brain stereotype already, Makoto watched the boar stand up with shaking knees.

Never having put any value on fighting fair battles he quickly ran forward and rammed his sword into the same...place as before, letting the beast yet again scream in complete humiliation and agony.

Noticing that he had been the only one to attack for quite some time now he looked back to the 3 girls only to see a mix of utter horror and disgust on their faces.

Deciding not to disturb them any more than really necessary he attacked just like before and soon enough arrows and fire balls rained down on the boss that still had not managed to get up again.

Finally reaching the last 15% of health the entire thing entered its last 'phase' and with a hind leg suddenly kicking against Makoto, he flew through the air, only to crash against the opposite wall with a back breaking force.

Critical hit!

You have received 1296 Damage!

On the brink of dying, only the saving grace from Sanja pushed him above 40% health with a heal while his body finally started to be affected by gravity again and he fell to the floor, for the 3rd time in this fight air was pushed out of his lungs against his will.

You have received 204 Damage!

Spitting out a constant stream of blood and clearly feeling a dent in his entire frame from the incredible kick, Makoto felt like he was about to throw up his internal organs next but thankfully his crazy fast regeneration spared him such an experience and bones shifted back into place with audible snaps and cracks.

With trembling arms he pushed himself up before throwing up what had been inside his stomach before, together with a bit of blood.

It took him half a minute to even stand up and another 10 seconds to grab his sword.

During that time, Sharon had aggroed the beast and she was constantly using her 'Quick Dash' to escape dangerous situations while making the boar's face look like a porcupine.

Just seeing countless arrows already stuck in both eyeballs let a slight shiver run down Makoto's back as he returned once more to the front lines.

"Fucker nearly one shot me..."

He grumbled while slashing against its side once again.

Together with the help of Lilliana, Sharon and Sanja that also started to use a few damaging spells, they finally managed to bring the thing down and with a dreadful squeal it slumped to the ground, its face and body covered with arrow shafts while here and there burned or cut op flesh was oozing with dark blood.

"Talk about close fight, I thought that kick snapped you in two Makoto."

Sanja said, a worried look on her face.

"Trust me, it felt like I did.

Anyways, what did it drop?"

More interested about the loot from such a random boss monster he quickly dragged his party to the decaying corpse and soon enough all that was left behind was a white and grey robe with an expensive design and a dark brown ring with a blue stone adorning it.

Robe of Attunement:Bathed in a holy light but forgotten inside the ever changing Labyrinth, this robe was crafted by a follower of the Divine God Parimes, Bringer of the first Dawn and 1 of the 5 Gods of Good.Defense:25Vitality:15Special Option:+8% to all healingAdditional Option:This item will be destroyed should its wearer ever fall below 'Neutral' Alignment.Durability:45/45Requirements:Level 25, Neutral or Good Alignment

Ring of the Sky Raven:Rumor has it that the eyes of Sky Ravens are just like jewelry, if the ring was crafted with this idea in mind is very questionable but the stone itself seems to stare into your very soul.Vitality:12Durability:25/25Special Option:Eyesight is greatly improvedRequirements:Level 23

Without even having to think about it, Makoto handed the Robe to Sanja and the Ring to Sharon.

The first item was obviously for a Healer and better eyesight also meant better aim for an Archer so there was no need for him to be greedy even if he was curious as by how much the ring improved your sight.

Thankfully he did not get out of the fight completely empty handed as he had gained more than enough experience to finally level up to level 24 and far beyond, he was now only 30% or so away from finally hitting the desired 25.

Looking at his status window after distributing the gains he felt that there was quite a big difference, just from this one level and how it had been before.

Status WindowName:Makoto ForrowfellLevel:24Alignment:Good, House ForrowfellClass:Crimson WarriorRace:HumanGender:MaleTitlesSlayer of All, Righteous Demon, First of a Kind, Champion of Blood, Murderer, Noble of AsuriaHealth:1500/1500Mana:560/560Strength:131Agility:152 (+5)Vitality:88 (+28)Wisdom:40Intelligence:41Fame:26Evasiveness:38Willpower:35Special Effects:+5% Damage against all living beings.

+15% Damage against Chaotic or Individuals with an 'Evil' Alignment.

+10% Chance to inflict the 'fear' status on your opponents when entering combat.

+10% Chance to inflict the 'fear' status on your first attack in battle.

+15% easier to intimidate Merchants or others.

Makoto couldn't help but smile after seeing his changed name and the two new titles.

Turning around to the rest of the group he looked at each and every one of them, ignoring that Lilliana still seemed to evade his eyes.

"Let's go people, we have some grinding to do!"

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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO my perfect upload streak was broken T-T.......

Damnit.....

Well, I hope you enjoyed the Chapter and see you tomorrow again!

(*Still salty about not making it in time*)