Chapter 7: Attaccing

The abyss caught him for a moment, but he escaped.

Zure pulls out a magic light spell and activates it, and suddenly the cave we just entered is no longer gloomy and sad. I look left and right, but I only see tunnels leading off every which way. “How are we supposed to find our way in here?”

Zure doesn’t seem to be listening; she’s too excited by the prospect of the potential fights waiting for us down each tunnel. When she wordlessly starts walking towards the third tunnel from the middle on the left, I shrug and follow along.

“All right Zeph; time for mountain education. People are typically able to solo mountains within 3 levels of their. I’m a level 31, you’re level two, this place is level 40. I should only be able to go to level 35 or so, but because you’re here, we can go higher. By the way, the highest mountain that I’ve soloed was a level 32. It was actually quite difficult.”

How is it physically possible for someone to smile after saying words like that? I know they didn’t really sound ominous, but if soloing a level 32 mountain was difficult for Zure, then I really don’t want to know what kind of terror awaits us further in.

The first creature that we see is a rock. A really big rock. But with eyes. It doesn’t look like it can move at all, thankfully, but in a moment, it begins to let out a low pitch that seems to be growing in volume gradually. Is this it’s attack?

“Zeph; hurry up! We have to attack that big rock thingy before the sound gets loud enough to kill us!” Oh yeah. I forget that even though it’s just making sound, it’s a monster. It is attacking somehow; if a sound is loud enough, someone who is too close to it can die from their lungs rupturing. Scary.

We take our weapons out of the inventory, I, my naginata and Zure, her daggers, and start to strike at the thicc thing. Surprisingly, a health bar pops up next to it after we start hitting it with our weapons. I freeze time before continuing, because I want to check if my weapon has any special skills, you know, generic stuff.

I slide up on it, and survey it. The first thing I see is that now, next to the name, it says Shadow Attribute. Then two bubbles pop up next to the name, |Abyssal Naginata: Shadow Attribute|.

I click on the first bubble, which then reads |Hurl: Hurl the naginata like a spear, will return to you on command. Costs stamina; Damage based on strength.| Neat.

The next bubble then reads |Shadow Slash: Lets forth a shade pulse from the blade. Costs stamina to use; damage based on strength.| Even cooler. Now I don’t really regret buying this thing, even if it was half of my budget.

I unfreeze time and try using Hurl. I think hard about throwing the spear, and I feel extra strength in my right arm, as if prompting me to throw it. I rear up like a baseball player and it flies straight through the rock like a knife through butter, leaving a streak of purple lightning behind, the rock's health bar dropping in an instant. Jesus.

|Levels gained: 3| |Free points: 12| |Item Gain: Thicc Rocc| |Yenom Gain: 750|

I then fall to one knee, fatigue overcoming me as I realise that I overused my stamina with that move. I call the spear back to my hand and use it to prop myself up as I struggle to stand up. Zure rushes over, with a worried look on her face. “What the hell was that?” Well. “If I had to say, it’d be a weapon skill.” With a confused expression and a wrinkled brow, Zure asks “Weapon skills?”, like she has no idea what they are.

This better not be some special ability granted to me by Joe. I tell Zure to slide up on her daggers and check the screen, but to my surprise, she tells me that there is nothing there except for the strength and speed buffs which are both 60+. Really. How much money did those cost? How the hell does she earn so much?

“Well, I guess it must be a reincarnated thing. Hand me your daggers.” When I take hold of the daggers. I notice that it says lightning attribute and that the daggers are named Bolt. How apt.

There are also two bubbles, and when I click on the first, it reads |Mirage Strikes: Doubles the amount of slashes the daggers do while activated. Costs stamina.| Interesting.

The next reads |Dual Flash: Use both daggers to send out a lightning cross-slash. Uses stamina; damage and speed based on strength.| Huh. It seems that weapons have one physical and one ranged attack. I use Cross Flash, but with minimal effort, and a weak x-shaped lightning thing flies forward. I might be 19 years old, but even I still think that’s some pretty cool shit.

I hand back the daggers to Zure and tell her what I saw. “Allright, now try thinking about sending out a lightning cross wave thing that I did earlier. Just try it.” Zure gathers herself, readies both daggers, then does a cross slash. I really expected nothing to happen.

When a lightning cross so large that it lights up the room flies forth and destroys over twenty feet of stone on the other side of the room, and chars much if the surroundings. Even my arm hair is slightly singed.

And then on cue, Zure collapses. A scene passes through my mind, and I smirk. {EXXXXPPLLLLOOOSSSIIOOONN}

“I guess I forgot to tell you that using the weapon skills consume stamina. Heh.” Oh. She passed out, and then the light that was illuminating the dark goes out.

I shake her shoulders for a minute, until she finally awakens. “That. Was. Awesome.” She says this as though she doesn’t seem to care that we’re in the middle of a level 40 mountain with no light while being incredibly fatigued. But screw that, of course. Who needs light when you have lightning?

“Do you have any potions or anything in your inventory?” I don’t have any, but she might. She opens up her invo and throws a few vials at me. I check what they are, and conveniently enough, they’re all stamina vials; 30 percent recovery rate. Not bad. We each take two and, after a glowy experience, can both stand once again. “Put back on the light thingy from earlier.” Zure grumbles something about worthless people and activates the light.

Before going forward, I pull up my screen and begin to distribute my points. After the distribution, the stats are |Strength: 26| |Defense: 21| |Speed: 30| |Stamina: 37| |Intelligence: 21|

Oddly, I do feel stronger than I was just a few minutes ago, even though nothing has changed except for my stats.

We then drudge forward. I tell Zure about the other skill, Mirage Strikes, and she tries it out on the next monster. She only strikes it twice, but there are four slash marks. Lit. I tell her to stop using it before it consumes anymore stamina, and we agree to not use anymore weapon skills unless in dire need.

Over the next few hours, we see an assortment of monsters, including a slimey boi, a large wolf pack, a vampire bat thing, and a dragonoid lizard human thing, which proved the most trouble. Some give us trouble, like the slime, but the wolf pack wasn’t really that bad.

I gain 7 levels, putting me at level 12. After point distribution, my stats are |Strength: 32| |Defense: 25| |Speed: 35| |Stamina: 40| |Intelligence: 21| I bet Joe tampered with my XP gain so I’d level up faster.

We consume a total of 6 stamina potions between us. We get to a dead-end, turn back, and get all the way to the start. By the time we get there, it’s 2:12.

Zure pulls a picnic basket out of her inventory, and we walk outside, sitting on the ground just outside the entrance to the mountain. The lunch is sandwiches and other fruits and drinks, but is generally unmemorable. We head back inside at 2:58. We repeat the same thing as earlier throughout the middle pathway, and then reach a much larger than usual cave entrance.

“Of course we would find the boss room…” I grumble to no one in particular. On the other hand, Zure seems ready to take on whatever lies beyond the opening. “Should we calm down for a little bit, rest, and then-” I don’t even finish my words when Zure sprints into the room. Why. Why would you do that? Are you dumb?

I shake my head and run into the room too. Inside, we find not a monster. We find a monstrosity. I wouldn’t dare call this normal; something is definitely off, and this is the first boss I’ve ever seen. The body, if you could call it one, is vaguely humanoid, with over 10 limbs, some of which are legs and arm fusions.

There are eyeballs all over its body, colored slightly red, it’s long, narrow tongues snaking around from its 4 visible mouth’s. If I wasn’t so desensitized, I would probably vomit and scream help. But not me, nor Zure.

We glance at each other before nodding a silent agreement to be careful. With an odd opponent like this, we can’t be too careful. I make a throwing motion with my hand, as I plan to try using Hurl, but with less effort. She nods, and stays back as I begin to rear up.

I feel the strength in my arm, but I try to suppress it as I shoot the spear forward. It flies fast, but not nearly so as last time, and the trail left behind is noticeably shorter, as is the lack of dark lightning.

The blade sticks in the flesh of the creature, and it finally notices us, but the spear is starting to be absorbed by the thing. I try to recall the spear to my side, but it seems to be stuck in the beast’s side. “Shit! The spear got stuck in the monster!” Without a moment to lose, we cast our buff magic on ourselves and rush towards the beast. I try to activate Freeze, but I lack the concentration; same for Chill. Zure flies in with her daggers, and I aim straight for my weapon, but when I try to grab it, I only graze the handle when the beast uses its limbs to grab me, but I am slashed free by Zure.

“Damn. This is no normal thing.” Zure nods in affirmation. “I know that dungeon bosses are supposed to be strong, but this thing is regenerative. I’ve never heard of a boss regenerating even in the strongest mountains.” Odd. The beast doesn’t seem to be moving. I calm down for a moment and activate Freeze.

I then run over to the beast and pull out the spear. I’m tired of waiting. I leave on the freeze, and start to unleash blows on the thing from every angle imaginable; I can’t see any noticeable damage because time is frozen, but if throwing the spear got it stuck, the weapon can damage it.

I continue my assault as time remains frozen. I stab it repeatedly now, but my stamina is starting to wane. This weapon has one more move, |Shadow Slash|. I unfreeze time and yell “ Zure! Stay back!” I really hope this works. I detach the sword from the handle, grip the katana with both hands, leap towards the monster and slash diagonally with all my might.

“Shadow Slash!” As I hit the monster, a massive shade wave erupts from the blade, and I feel colder as it emits an icy aura through the room, the light from Zure’s magic waning and flickering.

The beast splits in half diagonally and falls to the sides of where it once stood, and begins to turn into a pile of murk and dark blood.

I feel the sense of victory wash over me as a screen pops up. |Congratulations! You have defeated the dungeon!| |Levels gained: 2|

|Free Points: 8| |Item gained: Devolved Core|

I don’t have time to react to these notifications, as I fall to the floor, eyelids already closing shut. I’m barely able see Zure rushing over as I lay on the ground. Damn special moves take too much stamina.

When I awake again, we are in Zure’s car, and she’s about to start driving home. “You’re finally awake, stupid head.” She tilts my head up and pours a stamina potion down my gullet. How many of these things does she have? I feel 3.87 times better than before, and I sit up as she goes into uber-drive. I don’t really feel like talking right now, so I wait until we slow down.

As the blur around us slowly turns to solid pictures, I begin to speak.

“Did you get any levels?” “I got 3 levels from that place.” She seems irritated by something. “Idiot. Why’d you do that by yourself? I wanted to fight it too!” "That’s why you’re mad?"

“Also, you made me worried when you suddenly collapsed after that huge dark wave. Don’t do things like that! How do you think I would feel if you got hurt?” Oh yeah, I guess almost forgot about that.

“How do you think I would feel if I got hurt?”, I quip. I feel like that saying has always been a bit off. How would you feel? What about me? “Plus, I wouldn’t die. I would just freeze time and avoid the attack or something. You need to worry about yourself,” I then quote her, “How do you think I would feel if you got hurt?” I then mimic her puffy cheek expression, and she turns away with a hmph while parking the car.

Because I want her to calm down and act normal, I brush the hair hanging down on her face behind her ear gently and deliberately.

She turns to me and says, “I told you your resolve wouldn’t last long.”

Wrong. “Sure it didn’t. Who said this hair push was an affectionate one?”

Zure swats my hand away with a smile.

We exit the car and go inside.

End of Chapter 7