Part Seven – The Door to the Tower

“Gaaaaaaaaa, Fuck this place!” Currently, the object of my utmost hatred was right in front of me.

Door to the Labyrinth Tower

Description: The gate to the end of the Nightmare Labyrinth. Requires thirty Nightmare Fragments to open.

“Aaaaahhhh. I hate this fucking place!” I currently only had seven fragments, and two had come from the wolf. They’re an important item, why do they drop so rarely? I hate hate hate this place! Haaa, back to grinding.

::Requirement has been met, Special Skill: Skanda has become Rank E::

Wow, it sure took forever for that to rank up, let’s see what improved. Hm, the cooldown went to fifteen minutes? That’ll make it easier to use. I’d long ago figured out how to make the most of Skanda. When triggered, Skanda gave a one minute bank. You could use this bank freely until it was gone, when you would then have to wait for the cooldown to end.

At least I’m making progress there. I’ve only gotten two more fragments since I found the door, even though it’s been two days! At this rate it’ll take almost a month to get enough, I don’t want to wait that long, this place is driving me crazy. It was starting to seem as if hunting mid-bosses would be a better solution than randomly running around hunting mobs.

Even though I’d killed close to a hundred zombies today, I’ve only gotten one fragment. These drop rates are rigged, and I’m bored of killing these things, though thankfully no more liches appeared. Those things are trouble, I don’t want to know what they are or why they’re here.

“Garoooooooooooooooooooooo"

Shit, that’s going to be a problem ……..I’m pretty sure that was a wolf, and it sounded pissed or hurt. Hard to tell from so far away. But, that leaves a big question, what hurt or pissed it off. The next moment, Survival Instinct kicked in, and I jumped to the side.

“GROOOOOWWWWWWW”

I’ve seen this before, it’s a Shadow Wolf’s Howling Shockwave. Which means I pissed it off, but how?? Were this one and the one I killed mates or something? But its been days since that fight, why attack now? Gah, it doesn’t matter, I’ll think about it when this one’s dead.

I had to quickly jump to my feet, before the wolf’s claws could cut my head off. It seems almost agitated. The first one was calm all throughout the fight. This one though, super agitated. It’s not even thinking about its attacks, just acting out in blind fury and now it’s slowing down due to my curses. Every time it attacked, I was able to counter it, and it began to accumulate wounds.

The more my sword cut it the more the curse effect kept sapping its strength. Finally, it slipped after I dodged a bite from its fangs, and I thrust the blade into its neck. Hmm, it turned into three fragments? This seems a little too suspicious. Where was this wolf at in the first place? It knew my location too well for this to be a random attack. My intuition is telling me to be careful.

“KAAAAAAAAA"

“GRAAAAAAAA"

“MRAAAAAAAGH “

I was spot on. Over the next four days, multiple monsters, berserk with fury, had attacked me. Each time was the same way, with the monster screaming off in the distance, then suddenly attacking me. There’s something at the center of this, but I can’t tell what. I’m not able to catch up to it, but I’ve got a plan.

Specifically, it involved the Cloak of Shadow, which carried the skills, Stealth and Shadow Lurk. Stealth was self-explanatory, while Shadow Lurk allowed you to hide inside a shadow. Combined, I could use them to flush out whatever had been harassing me.

Retracing my steps, I returned to the tower, then found a convenient place to hide. There was one of those inexplicable forests near the tower. This old tree should work perfectly. The foliage is so thick you can’t see through it easily, and with my cloak I’ll be even harder to see. Now to wait…..and wait……and wait……haaaa, I hate this place.

A day passed in absolute silence, which I spent staring at either the tower or thinking about what I’d like to do at home. To be fair, I don’t think the second was very healthy. It was bound to make me exceedingly depressed.

After an agonizingly long time, my patience paid off.

Berserker-Creating Shaman

Rank: D

Description: A shamanic monster that guards the boss's lair. Can turn other monsters into raging berserkers.

Its appearance was strange. It was cloaked in voluminous robes, which concealed it completely from view. It was accompanied by two guards, each of which were very familiar. Hm, minotaur cubs huh? I figured they’d show up again, but here of all places. They’re only cubs and yet they’re that big. They probably wouldn’t be too much of a threat, but if they’re made berserk it’ll become a total slog.

Right now, they’re completely unaware as to where I am, but they’ll know when I attack. So, I need to take the Shaman out in one hit. He was too far away for me to attack.

I wasn’t adept enough at using Stealth to get close to him. I needed a way to get closer before attacking. I moved from tree to tree, keeping an eye on the shaman and his guards. Finally, the shaman commanded one of them to split away.

This is my chance! I stalked the lone minotaur. Its senses were weaker than the shaman’s, so I could get closer without fearing discovery. I began to prepare the momentum axe. I figured an ambush using it, could deal a fatal blow without turning into a brawl.

Minotaurs are, by nature, brutish and muscle-headed. They weren’t the smartest beasts. So the fact that this one got distracted by fruit, wasn’t so shocking to me. It did make it easy to get above the beast, and as it had let its guard down, I wasn’t letting it get away. Once I’d jumped from the tree, the axe bit deep into its skull, spilling blood and brain matter. Gah, that’s disgusting!

“Mraaaaaaaaaa”

The minotaur let out a low moan as it collapsed, quickly turning into particles of light. Some more fragments? That’ll help me get out of here. But where’s the other two?

“MRAAAAAAAGH!”

Oh shit! The other minotaur came barreling through the trees, fully intent on ripping me apart. It had clearly been turned into a berserker. Fucking shit! This is exactly what I didn’t want to deal with. These guys are hard enough to fight head-on, I don’t need it to go crazy as well!

The shaman was nowhere to be seen, but I was certain it was nearby. Aside from its ability to create berserkers, I didn’t know what it was capable of. That meant I had to be careful when fighting this one, as an attack from a blind spot could be fatal.

The minotaur had lost its weapon during its charge, and was flailing its fists in an attempt to hit me. I’m feeling like a matador. This is getting annoying.

Its arms were too thick for me to cut off, so I was settling for leaving multiple gashes in its body. Because of Cursed Blade affecting it each time I cut it, it was slowly weakening. Its breaths were coming in sharp bursts, and its blows were slowing. With it becoming unable to keep fighting, I was easily able to cut its throat.

With both of the guards dead, I only had to deal with the shaman, but I didn’t know where it was. I had no knowledge of tracking, so I once again used the Cloak of Shadow to hide and skulk through the forest.

There you are. It took an hour of searching to find it. When I discovered it, it was conducting some kind of ritual. There was a formation drawn into the dirt, and it was chanting a strange rhythm.

“Gya gaga gaegegygu gey ga”

Yep, that’s freaky as fuck. Let’s stop it before things get any worse.

Unfortunately, its senses were far superior to the minotaurs’. The second I got too close, it immediately detected me. It whipped around and began another chant. I tried to close in on it before it finished, but I was too slow. When its chant finished, a dozen fireballs appeared in the air around it, then launched toward me.

Fucking hell! When did this become a bullet hell game? The fireballs were in a simple formation, so it wasn’t hard to dodge. But once I’d avoided the first round, a second flickered into existence. FUCK, FUCK, FUCK! Playing games like this would get me killed sooner or later. I needed to end this, but didn’t have a move that could.

Aside from trying to get a lucky hit with a knife, the only thing I could think of was waiting until it got exhausted. But since I didn’t know how magic worked, that probably wasn’t a smart move. Is it like in games, with mana or some form of magic power? Can he only use so many times? I don’t know!

This was the first time I couldn’t finish an enemy. I’d had a few rough fights and close calls, but this was on another level. All I could currently do was to keep avoiding the fireballs, and try to close the distance. Even Skanda wasn’t going to help me here. This isn’t difficult now, but if I don’t finish it, I’ll tire eventually. My athleticism has increased since I came here, but I’m not superhuman.

I decided to memorize the attack patterns. If I knew how it would launch the fireballs, I’d be able to react quicker and avoid the attacks with less danger. I quickly saw results, as it turned out the shaman only had four or five formations. Within another five minutes I’d closed in and cut through its staff. The shaman panicked after that, using its broken staff to fend me off, but it only took a few swings to knock them away, and sever it’s head.

Fuck! I’m so tired I can barely stand. I haven’t run around like that since the time my little sister took my wallet and wouldn’t give it back. I’d had to tackle her to retrieve it. I’d have to remember that magic using enemies were troublesome to deal with.

The shaman’s corpse turned into light and left the familiar chest. I’m so tired that I can’t go check it immediately. This infuriates me. As soon as I recovered enough, I crawled over and checked it.

Enchantment Crystal

Rank: Special

Description: A special crystal that can hold an enchantment.

Inside, I found several more fragments alongside a strange crystal, which could be used for enchanting. Though, I didn’t know how to use it, so it just went into my bag.

Geez, I was hoping for another weapon, after all that. This could be useful so I’ll keep it, but I’m going to need a nap before I do anything else. Well no, I’m not going to. I was past the point where I needed to sleep after every major fight.

I headed towards the tower door while counting out the fragments I had. Let’s see, one, two, five, nine, eleven, sixteen, twenty-one, twenty-eight crap, I’m two short. Damnit