Wolf

I frown at my hand as I continue attempting – and failing – to shift it into ice element.

What the hell am I doing wrong? I’m doing everything my instincts are driving me to do, but it’s just not working…

Sapphire suddenly pops out of my shadow, drawing my attention towards her, only for me to look back at my hand as she begins randomly wandering around the area.

Am I missing something? Or are these instincts just not complete?

Considering that the Reaper called it the ‘System’s limited assistance’ and not instincts or anything like that, it’s probably the latter.

And they’re probably not actually instincts either. Just automatic assistance or guidance of some sort from the System…

Which makes sense, but it’s still a pain. Because it means I can’t do it yet.

I glance at Sapphire again, only for my frown to be replaced with confusion as I find her poking one of her legs into another one of those weird, slime-like blobs of lava.

“Why are you…” I trail off as I see the creature immediately begin to freeze before Sapphire hurriedly rushes it into her mouth before it can disappear. She then looks incredibly satisfied for a moment, only to look extremely confused the next.

Uh…

Okay then.

I turn away from her failed attempts to eat lava slimes back to my hand.

It’s rather unfortunate, but I guess it is a good thing to be breaking away from the System.

Considering the number of times I’ve seen people on the forums call it a ‘crutch’ for power. To the point that the people who leave the system-integrated-galaxies tend to have no idea how to use most of their active powers.

Although it’s going to be a pain to deal with adjusting and learning everything for myself.

But at least it won’t really affect my ability very much. Except for the healing myself, and elemental shifting of course. And maybe the absorbing other creature’s lifeforce and replacing it with my ice element power.

I frown at the thought for a second before shaking my head and continuing my way through the tunnel of the cavern, all while still attempting to figure out how to elemental shift.

Nearly a day later, on the ninetieth floor

“I don’t even know what to say anymore,” I mutter after I enter the large, open chamber that is the boss room and my eyes land on the small chick sitting atop the head of a large monster.

The monster has a humanoid shape, with pure-black eyes, what looks like magma flowing through its veins, and is sitting down on a large throne located in the center of an enormous platform. A platform of which is being held up by several large, black chains over an enormous pool of lava.

As soon as I step into the room, the monster begins to climb to its feet, startling the little immortal chick that was sleeping on its head into flying away. Meanwhile, various blobs of what looks like some sort of molten goop begin to fall down from the ceiling onto the obsidian platform.

_-| Archeron – Golem of the Molten Abyss – Level 1012 |-_

Some sort of abyssal golem with fire powers? And a bunch of those weak little lava slimes.

Such a strange pairing.

Interestingly enough, the golem actually stops moving after it reaches its full height of about four meters.

Is it waiting for something?

I look down at the bridge spanning the distance between us before looking up again at the golem.

Maybe it’s waiting for me to cross the bridge?

Also…

I turn my attention towards the chick who is currently gliding down towards the lava beneath us.

…is that safe? I know it’s immortal and all, but should it really be casually flying down into what looks like a volcano of lava?

Hmm.

Anyways, I turn my focus back to the golem as I begin to cross the bridge.

The instant my feet touch the platform, the bridge behind me suddenly collapses into the lava below, causing a large splash in it that sizzles once it touches the stone of the walls. Right after that, the large golem begins moving again, with its eyes releasing a small splash of lava that lands on the ground next to it.

“Sapphire,” I call out, prompting her to hop out of my shadow and glance around the large room we’re in. “Take care of the slimes for me.”

She lets out a brief hiss before immediately rushing towards the slimes and cutting into them with ease with her sharp claws.

The only issue with these particular slimes is that they’re only weak to elemental attacks, so any attacks that aren’t elemental in nature won’t do a thing to them. But fortunately, Sapphire and I have plenty of elemental attacks at our disposal.

Other than that, though, they’re pretty damn weak, and I’m really questioning who thought it would be a good idea to fill a boss room with them.

Speaking of the boss, it suddenly breaks off into a sprint towards me. A really slow sprint.

I tilt my head slightly before suddenly sprinting several meters away while shifting into my hunter form.

The boss slowly comes to a halt, not even having reached within a few meters of me, before it turns back to me and starts ‘sprinting’ again.

Oookaay…

I sprint away again while opening the System Forums to look up some information about this creature.

Because I’m pretty sure there wouldn’t be a monster in this balance obsessed universe that would have such a glaring flaw. Or at least not one that doesn’t have an equally powerful ability or aspect to counter it.

The boss and I continue to play chase as it tries again and again to attack me at its abysmally slow speed, meanwhile I search through the forums for information on it. It isn’t until a few minutes later, after I’m finally finding some information about it, that I realize something is wrong.

I look around, only to find Sapphire still killing slime after slime, with there not seeming to be any less than there were before despite the fact that many of them are dying at a pretty fast pace.

The hell…?

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I notice something fall from above, directing my eye towards the ceiling.

“Holy shit…” I mutter at the sight of a large face on the ceiling. One that is constantly pouring out slimes that are just casually moving around the ceiling, with a new one falling down every time one of the ones on the platform dies.

What the hell is going on…?

Wait, the forums!

I quickly dodge out of the way again before the boss can get near me while focusing on the forums, only for my eyes to widen in surprise.

So that’s it!