The cavern that used to be covered in ice was slowly melting away, letting the party pass through the next entrance. This time the path was wide open with plenty of room to move around instead of the small tunnel they had to traverse last time. The path was being blocked by a very familiar looking type of snake.

Level 45 -(Elite)Man Eating Viper-

These were the same snakes that had blocked his way through the jungle when he first made his way to Frost Peak Mountain. They were a lot less dangerous now but still needed to be carefully killed. Sora deployed a new strategy where he would aggro a snake before running back, going between his party members, so that everyone could attack the snake at the same time. The plan was simple enough and the snakes were large enough for everyone to be able to hit it at the same time. The only downside was that the party now had to kill off the enemies one at a time, greatly slowing their pace towards the next boss.

It took the party quite a long time before they were able to see the entrance to the next cavern. There was still a lot of snakes that were in front of them, along with two snakes that were even larger than the ones they were currently fighting, next to the entrance of the cavern. The two large snakes looked similar to the Man Eating Vipers except they were a bright green color and at least two times larger than the other snakes.

“Looks like we have a mini-boss ahead. Let’s clear out all the snakes before we get closer, just in case we need to move around.”

The party started to sweep back and forth as they went through the pathway, killing off every snake they could find. It took a lot of extra time but the pathway was now clear of any additional enemies other than the two snakes at the entrance to the next cavern. A purple liquid could be seen dripping from their mouths before hitting the floor with a sizzling noise.

Level 45 -(Elite)Man Corroding Viper-

The name hinted at the true nature of the viper. They would use poisonous attacks to slowly kill their enemies. This was the first time the party had encountered an enemy that could apply a damage over time effect, meaning they would need to be extra careful until they can get the hang of it. Sora was mostly worried about Athenese since damage over time was hard to heal against. There were two snakes so Athenes would have to keep track of the tank and off tank, making sure they don’t get whittled down by the poison. Athenes having [Greater Healing] made it easier but it would waste too much mana if she constantly used it.

“Nobunaga, you will be tanking one of the vipers. Dodge their attacks as much as you can until the rest of the party can kill the first one. Blossom and LeeLee, you will need to try and kill the one I’m tanking in less than a minute. I will be mainly focused on dealing damage after I get poisoned so it’s up to Athenes to keep me healthy.”

The normal enemies had turned into what seemed like a boss fight. Sora, Blossom, and LeeLee were all grouped up on one side while Nobunaga was alone on the other side. Athenes would stand between the two and it was up to the tanks to stay within healing range. Sora started the attack by aggroing his snake, it let out a hissing noise as purple liquid was spat towards him. Sora was able to dodge the first attack but he wouldn’t be able to stay unpoisoned forever. The second snake seemed to share aggro with the first since it started to make its way towards Sora. Nobunaga had to step between them and start tanking the second snake, he was also able to dodge the first glob of poison.

Sora would use [Concuss] everytime it came off cooldown, buying him a good amount of time and delaying the time he would be poisoned for. He had been doing pretty good in parrying the bite attacks for a while but it was inevitable that a glob of poison would splash onto his body, finally poisoning him. Now that he was poisoned he stopped being defensive and started a counter attack with full offense. This let Blossom and LeeLee start dealing even more damage and killing the snake very quickly.

Nobunaga wasn’t fairing off as well as Sora. He was unlucky enough to be hit with a poisonous attack almost immediately after he started fighting it. Athenes was busy healing her brother and barely had enough time to divert her attention to Sora. Luckily Sora wasn’t in dire need of healing and she only had to use [Greater Healing] on him every now and then. Every other second was spent using a normal [Heal] on Nobunaga. Sora had been able to stack a shield with his armor set bonus, absorbing a lot of the poison and being able to help swiftly take out the snake while still keeping his health up. After the snake fell the entire party had piled onto the second snake, with Sora taking it’s aggro to give Nobunaga some breathing room. Both snakes died, leaving the entrance to the next cavern open. Sora and Nobunaga were still poisoned, Athenes had drained a chunk of her mana with healing, and Blossom and LeeLee had a lot of their abilities on cooldown so Sora decided to take a break first. He passed each person a Roasted Flat River Fish before sitting down to rest.

“Hey mister fisherman, why this fish and not the one that gives bonus strength?”

“If things go how I think they will then the bonus health will be very important. Especially if the boss can also use poison.”

Of course Sora already knew that the boss could use poison, which is why the next boss fight would be extremely hard. It was mostly hard since anti-poison consumables could not be made yet, since the next boss is the one who dropped the recipe for it. The recipe had a pretty low drop chance so the recipe might not be found any time soon. If Sora could get his hands on it his guild would be able to go through this dungeon a lot easier. The party rested until everyone was ready to go, lining up at the entrance to the cavern.

Level 45 -Odma, The Corrosive-

A black snake with eccentric orange designs all over it’s body could be seen coiled around a naturally formed pillar. Even when the snake was coiled, it still was almost as big as a house. Its head was lying on the ground, soaking in a red liquid that emitted steam. The battlefield didn’t have anything that stuck out and it seemed like the fight would be pretty straightforward. The only thing Sora was worried about was the stacking poison. Every minute the boss would put a stack on whoever has aggro, the player would take 25 points of poison damage per stack every second unless they get rid of the stacks. Right now the only way to get rid of the stacks was to wait a minute and thirty seconds, meaning the boss would be able to constantly keep the poison on a tank until it would be doing damage that the healer couldn’t keep up with. Sora would have to make someone tank the damage at every third or fourth stack. The boss would also randomly put a stack of poison on someone at every 25% health drop, making it even worse on the healer. Sora looked at Athenes with a look of pity, she didn’t quite understand and only cheerfully smiled.

“Let’s just start attacking. I’ll let you all know when the plan needs to change. Athenes, it looks like this one will also use poison so stay vigilant.”

Sora led the charge to begin fighting the boss. The snake rose its head, carrying some of the steaming red liquid that was still stuck to its mouth. The liquid flung off of the snake and hit Sora before he could react. His first stack of poison had been applied, ticking away 25 HP per second. The snake started to attack Sora, dealing a moderate amount of damage with its basic attacks. The basic attacks of this boss were not troublesome at all, the poison was the only real issue. The basic attacks were mostly troublesome only if you get your poison stacks high enough plus get hit with a basic attack, then you could possibly go from 100 to 0 before the healer even gets to cast a spell.

The fight had proceeded smoothly until the next stack was applied to Sora, dealing 50 damage per second and giving the healer a little bit of pressure. Sora was planning to take three stacks before he makes someone else tank it. The snake fell to 75% health right before the next stack was about to be applied. The boss shot the red liquid towards Nobunaga, applying a stack of poison to him. Right after the boss hit Nobunaga, he turned back towards Sora and made him take another stack. Athenes started to sweat a little as she frantically healed between Sora and Nobunaga. Sora would be hit with a [Greater Heal] and Nobunaga would be hit with a normal [Heal], Athenes kept going back and forth like that to keep both of them healthy.

Sora carefully counted in his head, trying to time when the boss would apply another stack of poison. He started to slow down his attacks on the boss, slowly reducing his aggro until it was just above Blossom.

“Blossom, take the aggro!”

“Got it!”

Blossom used [Savage Pounce] followed by [Overwhelm] to just barely grab the aggro of the boss. The boss turned towards Blossom just as the red liquid started to shoot out from it’s mouth, hitting Blossom and applying a stack of poison.

“Alright, I’m taking the aggro back.”

“You could have at least warned me…”

Blossom looked like she was pouting as Sora began taking back the aggro. The boss was pulled back towards Sora as his stacks of poison resolved themselves at almost the same time as Nobunaga’s. Athenes let out a small sigh of relief as she pulled out a mana potion that Sora had given her, drinking it to restore the large chunk of mana she lost while buffing her Spirit. Blossom was now the only one with a stack of poison so she had a little bit of time before the pressure would come back. Just as Athenes had started to relax a little, Sora was hit with a red liquid and gained a stack of poison.

Having three people poisoned at once was a little bit of a slip up but they were able to pull through it, mainly due to Athenes being able to keep up with each person. The team continued to slowly shave away at the HP of the boss. Sora had three stacks of poison and was just about to switch with Blossom when the boss hit 50% health and a red liquid hit her. It would be troublesome for Blossom to take the aggro and Nobunaga had too little aggro to take it away from Sora.

“LeeLee, you're going to have to take the aggro this time, so get ready. Blossom, slow down your damage a little so LeeLee can be the one under me. Athenes… I’m sorry.”

The cheerful smile that was normally on Athenes’ face was replaced with fear as she thought about the upcoming damage she would have to heal. Blossom started to slow down her damage as LeeLee started stacking her [Curse of Pain] and [Curse of Famine]. She also used [Accurate Strike], making her next attack deal a massive amount of damage and taking over the aggro. LeeLee became poisoned and Sora took the aggro once again. Athenes started to rapidly heal to the best of her abilities, even with her best healing Sora nearly died and was only saved due to the fact that his set had passively given him a shield to help absorb some of the damage. He also took out a health potion and drank it to help give Athenes a little more time. The poison stacks were resolved and stabilized his health, for now. Athenes still had to heal Blossom and LeeLee at the same time and Sora would get a stack reapplied again soon. Sora was able to keep his health manageable until Blossom and LeeLee both lost their stacks.

At the last 25% the snake had targeted Sora, who had just received his third stack of poison. It could be considered lucky since Sora had the largest health pool and could use his passive shield to help absorb some of the damage. Blossom took the aggro on the next poison attack, letting Sora resolve the four stacks of poison that were on him. Athenes had to use one more mana potion to get through the last stretch of the boss fight.

The giant snake let out a pitiful hiss as it slammed onto the floor, releasing a large amount of the red liquid around its body. The red liquid dissolved the snake before disappearing. The pillar in the middle had a small piece of it hollowed out with a chest located within. The chest wasn’t locked so Sora was able to pull it open without any issues. Nobody was able to level up, but the entire party had recieved a large amount of EXP, putting them all on the edge of leveling up.

[x1 Holy Skirt of Mercy obtained]

Rarity - Set Rare

Durability - 55/55

Defense - 7

Requires - Level 40 - Light Armor Class

“Made From a silk that permeates with a holy aura. The skirt will change appearance based on the gender of the player.”

+15 Wisdom

+15 Spirit

*Set Bonus*

2 / 5 = +20 Spirit

4 / 5 = +30 Wisdom

5 / 5 = Support spells cost 25% less mana to cast

The item went to Athenes without question. Not only is she the only healer, but she also earned it after the healing she had to do. Athenes had a tired face but the cheerful smile returned to her as she equipped the skirt. It was made from a white lace fabric that had many frills and ribbons attached to it, it suited the cheerful girl.

[x1 Demonic Leather Leggings obtained]

Rarity - Set Rare

Durability - 60/60

Defense - 9

Requires - Level 40 - Medium Armor Class

“Made from putting many small metal plates within leather leggings made from the hide of a demonic wolf. The design offers good defense without sacrificing your ability to move freely.”

+15 Agility

+15 Constitution

*Set Bonus*

2 / 5 = +20 Constitution

4 / 5 = +30 Agility

5 / 5 = Landing an attack increases attack and movement speed by 10% for 5 seconds

LeeLee was able to secure her second piece of the Demonic Leather set, giving her the first bonus. Sora had noticed a piece of paper under the leggings that he just pulled out. He didn’t dare assume it was what he thought it was.

[x1 Beginner Anti-Poison Recipe obtained]

Sora had already shoved the possibility of getting the recipe away, since it was very rare. He was now holding probably the only recipe that would be around for a while. He had the urge to take it but then remembered that his party also had the right to it.

“Are any of you Alchemists?”

“...”

“...”

“I am!”

It looks like Athenes was an Alchemist. He wouldn’t mind giving the recipe to her, as long as the recipe stayed within the guild then it would be fine. Sora could also save some time by having someone else make the potions, letting him continue leveling or working on other things.

“Alright, we will roll for it then.”

“Ok.”

Sora rolled for the loot and ended up getting a 46. He ended up losing to Athenes who rolled a 50, securing the recipe. Athenes took the recipe with hesitation since she thought that Sora wanted it. When she saw that he wasn’t really affected by losing the roll she ended up taking the recipe and learning it. Sora picked up the final pieces of loot, one being a lucky coin while the rest was just gold and silver.

[x1 Lucky Coin obtained]

The group all rolled for the coin and Sora ended up winning it with a 95. Sora used the coin as the space around them started to distort, sending them through the tunnel made up of many different colors that they had entered with.