Chapter 72 Level 35
*GAHH!!!
With a single cry, the guardian of the 3rd-floor obelisk collapsed against the floor.
"Gah! Oh my god! Finally!" Madison cried out as she fell on her back. Panting heavily, she cursed at the previous fight.
"What kind of boss is able to shift a bone through their body to make another arm!?" She complained.
"This one." Lyrica replied as she was currently laying face down on the floor.
Shiro only shook her head seeing how dramatic they were being.
"Shiro don't even think about it. I know that face and we are definitely not overdramatic! Having a third arm suddenly stick out from the belly to give you a punch is definitely not normal!" Madison complained as she turned her head to Shiro.
"I second that~" Lyrica agreed.
'Well… I suppose they are correct.' Shiro thought with a smile.
[But, you did good against this boss.]
"Would have done worst if Yin wasn't here chaining up the boss every once in a while." Lyrica reminded them.
There were several close calls where Yin would use her ice chain skill to lock the boss down, saving the girls from a heavy hit.
[Do realise that you two are both level 25 and you fought a level 30 boss. NOT TO MENTION, you survived and even killed it with minimal help from me and little Yin.] During the fight, Shiro saw that the two were holding off the boss quite well so she decided to do a little less in order to push their bodies past their limits.
And as she had expected, the fight had drawn out more of their survival instincts. Allowing them to dodge attacks they would normally have trouble with and increase how often they see an opening they can take advantage of.
However, Lyrica and Madison weren't the only ones to level up and improve. Yin had increased her level to 20. The only problem laid with her class up.
They had no idea how Yin would class up. She had already tried feeding her a C ranked mana stone yet it had no effect. It just looked like Yin levelling up passively without actually classing up.
[Yin LVL 20]
HP: 25,000/25,000
MP: 65,000/65,000
Skills – Shadow Buff (Tier 1), Ice Chain (Tier 1), Shadow Cloak (Tier 1), Shadow Talon (Tier 1)
Naturally, with her level up, she was able to gain the skill Shadow Talon. Shadow Talon in itself was a simple skill since it just helped increase Yin's damage potential up slightly.
As for Shiro, she had not managed to level up despite the fact that she had cleared out a majority of monsters on each of the floors.
'Probably because they're almost 5 levels below me. I would have to do 2 or 3 runs to actually level up from mobs lower than me due to decreased EXP gain.' She thought.
However, she didn't have any idea how much exp she had acc.u.mulated. She could potentially level up with the next kill or after 5 more dungeons.
'Even if I don't level up during the boss fight, I'll probably run through the dungeon a few more times with Lyrica and Madison. At least I can also get them some easy levels.' Shiro thought with a shake of her head.
The sudden jubilation and surprise of a level up were always welcome. Just the feeling of elation that fills you after a fight was intoxicating for Shiro. She made sure to enjoy every bit of it since level-ups will become rarer the higher level she was.
Jumping from one level to another may take you months to complete.
[Alright. Since we've rested enough, let's go to the last boss.]
"Urg… Let me rest a bit longer~" Madison cried out in injustice.
Looking at Madison's figure whilst laying down, Shiro couldn't help but narrow her eyes.
'Maybe I should make her fight until her cow udders become iron pecks. They'll be more helpful for her since she's a tanker and not a model.' Shiro thought.
Madison shivered slightly as she felt endangered. Quickly sitting up, Madison looked around and saw the way Shiro was staring at her b.r.e.a.s.ts.
'SHE'S THE SOURCE OF DANGER!!!' She cried out mentally.
"Welp Lyrica. C'mon let's go fight the last boss!" Madison said hastily, dragging Lyrica by the arms.
"Urggg… let me rest longer~!" Lyrica protested while her body was entirely relaxed. Resulting in Madison dragging her like a ragdoll.
Shiro chuckled seeing the shenanigans of the duo.
Entering the obelisk, they tapped the icon for the final floor.
They shielded their eyes while the teleport was happening.
Once they reopened them, they saw the boss room. The room was brightly lit as day, which was very odd for an underground dungeon, and had crystals of different colours scattered around the room.
Shiro first looked towards the ceiling in case of ambush before refocusing on the crystals.
There were five colours in total for the crystals and Shiro recognised it to be elemental crystals.
'So it's an enhancement type boss. It'll grow stronger depending on what type of crystal it eats during the fight.' Shiro thought.
Locating the places where the crystals are, Shiro made a mental note of this.
'I wonder if I will get a boost eating one of these crystals. I know that humans would just be sick and might die if they ate one. But I'm a monster now and I should get the same benefits as these monsters.' Shiro thought.
"Where's the boss?" Lyrica asked as the boss hadn't appeared yet.
"Maybe it's hiding in ambush?" Madison suggested.
[Good thinking. You should also make sure you check the ceiling of the boss room in case it drops down and attacks you.] Shiro suggested.
Reading the suggestion, the two looked up.
"Since it's not in front of us, nor is it above us, then can it be under us?" Lyrica asked.
[Nice guess. And yes, you are right.] Shiro smiled as she pointed her finger at an obscure corner. With how the lighting was, they barely saw the scaled back of the boss.
Seeing that it was discovered, the boss's body shook as the boss room trembled along with the boss.
"Woah!" Madison cried out whilst trying to stabilise herself.
Lyrica reached out for her as she helped Madison stabilise herself. Looking over to Shiro, they were unsurprised when they saw her unaffected. No matter how much it shook, it looked like she was having a gentle walk.
Once the boss had excavated itself from the ground, its entire body was in view. Its main body compromised of an almost fleshless hybrid of a mole rat and a centipede. With segments of just skin and bone, its fleshless arms reached out for the support pillars near it.
On its back, a scaled layer could be seen, bearing high resemblance to a lizard's back.
Looking at the almost fleshless, multi-armed, scaled mole rat thing in front of them, Madison had to blink a few times just to make sure she wasn't seeing things.
"You ever just imagine what would happen if that thing had parents?" Madison asked.
"Nope but if it did, its parents must be pretty wild for the appearance to merge this much." Lyrica replied.
'Hmm… Looks perfect to be skewered. A single ice pillar and that thing would look like a barbecue.' Was Shiro thoughts.
"Don't even think about attacking the rear." Lyrica said.
'Tsk.'
Seeing that her thoughts were seen through, Shiro inspected the boss.
[Nightmare Miner LVL 30]
HP: 800,000/800,000
MP: 500,000/500,000
'Well he certainly is the nightmare.' Shiro agreed with the name.
[You know what to do. Madison you tank, Lyrica you're damage dealer and I'm the support.] Shiro typed out quickly.
The duo nodded as they were pretty used to this now.
"Little Yin, lock him up and blind him if you can." Shiro whispered.
*Chirp!
Yin patted her chest in reassurance before flapping her wings towards the monster.
*PING!!!!
Chains shot out from the ground and locked the monster up.
Flying towards the pair of eyes at the front, Yin's talons lit up in with a deep purple aura.
*KISHK!
Surprisingly, a layer of scales had dropped down and over the eyes of the monster. Protecting it from Yin's attack.
*Chirp?!
Yin was confused as to whether or not she should attack.
"Little Yin!" Shiro called out to Yin.
Flying back to Shiro, Yin pointed at the monster and chirped in annoyance. Almost as if she was complaining to Shiro that the monster didn't take the attack like a monster should.
"Hahaha, little Yin, the monster isn't going to let you hit it for free." Shiro chuckled but she wasn't idle.
Dashing towards the monster, she created 4 ice spears in the air before sending them to the 4 corners of the room.
Pivoting on her left foot, Shiro drew a circle with her right foot. A magic circle rotated into existence while she slammed her palms down and caused the magic circle to light up. When she did this, the ice spears also lit up with a blue glow.
*BOOM!
The spears shattered into shards that surrounded the elemental crystals like a prison cell.
With her preparation done, Shiro dashed towards the boss to support Madison in tanking while Lyrica deals the damage.
*BOOM BOOM!
Redirecting the force of two punches, Madison gritted her teeth for the left-over force from the attack.
Seeing that two punches couldn't kill the tiny human in front of it, the boss opted to use four punches instead.
Shiro appeared in front of Madison at this moment because she knew Madison would not be able to handle four attacks at once.
Three? Barely. Four? Definitely not.
Making an ice spear, Shiro twirled the ice spear before intercepting the attacks.
In one simple sequence, she redirected the flow of the fist's, causing them to collide into one another.
[Me and you will tank together.] Shiro typed out with one hand.
"Alright." Madison nodded as she braced her shield once more.
###
'Hm, little snow had entered the dungeon. It should take her a day or so inside the dungeon before coming out again.' Nan Tian thought to himself whilst gazing at the city.
"Nan Tian, I've found a few traces of the ritual being performed. However, the ritual is much larger in scale than we had expected." Huan Er reported.
"Mn… How large?" Nan Tian asked.
"By current simulations, it should cover roughly 50% of New York city."
"50% huh? Increase that to about 60 to 70%."
"Why?"
"Rituals have the tendency to increase in potential depending on which spots you make as your foundation. Since we are dealing with Black Monarchy, you can guess the rituals they perform are much more powerful than normal rituals." Nan Tian shook his head.
The main reason as to why he was deployed to New York was due to this ritual problem.
While they didn't know the contents of this ritual, they knew that a ritual of this magnitude had to be dealt with.
"Can't you just search the entire city for Black Monarchy members?" Huan Er asked. She knew about Nan Tian's eye which let him see through all disguises, so she was wondering as to why he wasn't using it.
"You misunderstand the power of my eye. Yes, I can see through disguises, but Black Monarchy members don't have a title saying that they're members of the Black Monarchy. My eye cannot see into the mind.
"I can't just look at someone and know what they're thinking. Therefore, I cannot just look at someone and say 'they are Black Monarchy members'. That'll be irresponsible." Nan Tian shook his head.
'But weren't you able to see the thoughts of the ice mage?' Huan Er thought, feeling a little sour on the inside.
"So since we can't make use of my eye, we'll have to find clues and try to track them down manually. Understand?" Nan Tian asked, turning around slightly.
"Understood."
"Good." Turning back to the city, he wondered about what Shiro was going to do after leaving the city.
Shaking his head, he put idle thoughts to the side for now. He had serious business to take care of first.
###
*BOOOM!!!
Seeing the nightmarish creature finally die to a lethal blow to the head, Madison and Lyrica sighed in relief.
Shiro, on the other hand, was smiling as she had been able to level up with the defeat of this boss.
[Name: Shiro
Race: Snow Girl (Evolution Criteria yet to be met)
Title: Shadow Empress, Beginner Monster (1/10 Humans Killed), Fratricide
Level: 35
Class: Snow Girl★★(Eligible for star advancement), Nanomancer
HP: 59,020/85,600
MP: 82,500/131,200
STR: 520 (+110)
VIT: 550 -> 600 (+85)
INT: 750 -> 850 (+200)
AGI: 600 -> 670 (+130)
DEX: 600 (+70)
DEF: 255 (+130)
= Title Bonus
Unassigned Points: 220 -> 0
Attunements:
Ice – Tier 2
Lightning – Tier 1
Metal – Tier 0
Shadow – Tier 0
Balance: 12,500,001 USD
Equipment (Tap to Display)
Skills –
Snow Girl ★★:
Tier 2 Ice magic, Passive Regeneration, Blessed by Ice, Snow Magic, Faded Snow Movement, Cold Aura, Icy Touch, Icy Breath.
Nanomancer:
Dagger Creation, Nano Tech Engineering Tier 1, Sword Creation, Bow Creation, Heavy Weapon Creation, Shield Creation.
Other:
Mini-map, Inspection, Disguise, Mana Barrier.
Shared Skills (Yin):
Shadow Buff (Tier 1), Ice Chain (Tier 1), Shadow Cloak (Tier 1), Shadow Talon (Tier 1).]
With her level up, she had finally gained the option to increase her star from two stars to three stars.
[Snow Girl ★★★ (Star Advancement in progress)]
48/200 D ranked Mana Stone
0/5 Ice Spirit Essence
0/1 Ice Heart
Seeing the requirements, Shiro was thankful that they weren't too difficult of a task for her to complete.
The 200 D ranked mana stone can be gained by running a D ranked dungeon several times. The 5 Ice Spirit Essence was an item you get from bosses near cold areas. The drop rate for the Ice Spirit Essence was rather low so Shiro would probably need to kill quite a few before she reached 5.
The last item was probably the hardest one but also the easiest one.
'I can probably get it if I scammed the mage's association.'