Ank

In the end, the underground labyrinth was surprisingly big.

How big?

“Do you think this beard looks good on me?”, I asked, passing my fingers through the stubs of beard that had started to grow on my face. Surely, I hadn’t been in that earth labyrinth for years, but my and my sister’s hair had grown one or two more centimeters, and my face had been ornate with a scruffy beard.

“Nah, you still look too young for that.”

As I started to shave with a knife that dropped from one of the defeated monsters, using a water pool as a mirror, I recalled the events that happened since we killed the first two monsters inside the [Dungeon]:

Immediately after our first victory, we had the meat that dropped as dinner, and I set a summon as a guard while we rested, and that had been pretty much how we proceeded; killing all day, and then proceeding to eat the dropped consumables, drinking from natural water sources, and camp with one of my monsters serving as a guard. At some point, we got a leather piece that worked just well as a map, and with coal, we kept track of our travels on it (thank goodness, the labyrinth didn’t expand in three dimensions), but generally we didn’t really have a direction; we even found the entrance for the boss room sooner than expected, but ignored it in favor of killing more mobs. Anyway, that wasn’t why I was recalling these past few days (weeks?), but for the fighting.

Yes, then my sister and I stood in a large empty room, to where many paths were connected, and lead to a large wooden door with a big head of one of the monsters we extinguished sculpted in it; obviously, the boss room. We were preparing ourselves and resting before facing the big guy, and to remember how we had been fighting could be useful.

And so, I mentally skipped those first few times when Hunah and I kept fighting more or less the same way we did against that first pair of [(D) Glyptodons] inside the [Dungeon], and highlighted the moments I imagined could be handy: there was that time I summoned a bunch of shield-bearers, and managed to surprisingly stop a [(D) Glyptodon]’s charge by putting my summons in line with their shields in hand, and Hunah proceeded to top the thing over with her sheer strength; and that other time, when I summoned a bunch of [Fake Caltrops], hurting the monster’s paws, stopping it in its tracks, and making a mess, when all the other monsters that were following this hurt one just as fast, hit one another with their powerful charges, killing many among themselves, and hurting even more…

Oh, yeah, the [Fake Caltrops]. I unlocked in the very beginning of [Dungeon] exploring, to make our runs safer, this could be useful. I hoped it would be, because I invest these 4 of the 6 points I received for getting from [level: 24] to [Level: 30] in the summoning items stuff.

While my new summonable weapons were [Summons: Fake Caltrops], [Summons: Fake Spear], [Summons: Fake Daggers], [Summons: Fake Pickaxe], I also unlocked a new humanoid creature to use them [Summons: Azeban]. My real sweetie, however, still didn’t have the chance to shine properly, for I had unlocked it just after killing the last mob, but the chances of it actually working were just 5%. And this made me concerned. I just needed it to work on the boss.

My sister, on the other hand, enhanced her shield use efficiency to +20%, as well as the dagger/knives proficiency to the same level.

That said:

“You ready?”, I asked, having cleaned my face off the unfitting hair.

“Yep”, Hunah got up, taking her small, and round [Glyptodon Shell Shield] dropped from one of the monsters, and we approached the door.

We pushed the large wooden passage open, and slowly advanced inside a very large circular hall. The high ceiling and walls were completely covered by the yellow shimmering roots, and it was very well illuminated when compared to the rest of the [Dungeon]. And, there, waiting in the very middle of the room, the boss of that floor.

Standing at 2 meters tall, but 5 meters long, not very different from the monsters we’ve been killing so far when it came to its protective carapace, the most noticeable difference was the huge armored tail ended in a spiked ball. Over its head, text floated:

[Species: (D - Boss) Doedicurus, level: 35

HP: 2500/2500 (2500)]

As we got into our stances, the monster appeared to be waking up. I couldn’t avoid but to notice:

“What are the parenthesis after his [Health Points]?”

“How am I supposed to know? You’re the monster man here.”

“Come on, I lived in the middle of nowhere my entire life, I can’t possibly know everything about them” Oh, well, in any case we would discover very soon anyway.

As my sister and I separated, the huge monster dashed forward, showing all the prowess of its lower versions, but in doubled capacity; Hunah barely avoided being crushed against the wall, rolling away, but the impact of the attack against the root covered wall was such, sending shock waves through all the room, that we had to resist [Fear] debuff.

“[Summon: Azeban, Venomous Fake Warpick]”, I quickly conjured, and four [level: 7] furry little raccoon-man came out from burning green flames, holding each a warpick covered in venom; just like me.

Those summons weren’t much stronger than the [Chullachakis], but were way faster, and so I sent them immediately after the boss.

My sister didn’t stay still all the while, however, and also lunged forward gripping her dagger backward: she jumped, and prepared for a striking stab as the monster was maneuvering out of the hole it dig with its charge, but before she could even lend on the thing’s back, its tails came swiping with a whistle, so fast it was moving.

“Shit!”, I cursed, as I saw Hunah lifting her shield and blocking the attack, but being sent far away.

“I’m okay”, my sister said back, landing somewhat safely, though with many of the [Glyptodons] scales that covered her shield broken; her [HP] visible through our [Party] windows also didn’t show any significant depletion.

Right then, my [Azebans] managed to land a single attack, before being forced to retreat under another tail swipe.

[Species: (Boss) Doedicurus, level: 35

HP: 2500/2500 (2485)]

I sighed.

Of course the parenthesis were a “shield” of some kind…

Freed from the wall, the boss prepared for another charge; I thought about using the sliding shield strategy again, but the thing’s paws were just so huge, it was meaningless with the tinny shield I could summon. Then, it stroke again, this time coming after me.

“[Summon: Venomous Fake Calrops]”, I conjured about a dozen asterisk shaped translucent tiny spiky balls that cover the ground between my opponent and me as I tried to ran away from the incoming monster, but it was clear that, differently from the [Glyptodons], the boss not only had much better control of the charge, but that shield seemed to have numbing it from any pain, and I wouldn’t make it. “Sorry, buddy”, I said, as one of my fast summons pushed me away from the incoming attack.

[Summon: Azeban, level: 7, defeated]

I rolled on the ground, and immediately re-summoned the same creature, but my [MP] made it pretty obvious that keep that going wouldn’t be a reliable strategy.

Hunah came in once more, and this time managed to avoid the tail swipe, and brushing her knife against the apparently invulnerable monster, but she retreated quickly after, cursing:

“Shit, we still have just barely even scratched his shield…”

Once again going for blood, my four summons scrambled around the boss, running on all fours, carrying their weapons on their mouths (the summoned weapons were scaled for them automatically), and hit the [(D - Boss) Doedicurus] on its legs, just so slightly chipping away on the thing’s life. But it was one of the summons in particular that caught my attention, as it dashed under the monster, scratching the belly of the boss with its warpick, and taking away a surprising lot of the thing’s shield.

I exchanged a glance with Hunah, and she seemed to notice it too.

Bothered by my summons, and tired of trying and failing to crush them down with its paws, once they were more agile, the [(D - Boss) Doedicurus] dashed after Hunah once more.

But this time, she didn’t jump away, but ran straight against the monster too. And bent backward, sliding on her knees, and slashing with her dagger from one end to another on the underpart of the boss:

[Critical hit! +100% Damage!]

[Species: (Boss) Doedicurus, level: 35

HP: 2500/2500 (2305)]

Yes, the [Glyptodons] walked with their bellies too close to the ground for that, and so we never considered the sliding-under strategy, but the truth was different for the way taller boss.

The monster dug its paws on the ground, forcing itself to a stop, noticing how it lost more than a hundred shield points in a single strike. But I wouldn’t allow the thing that privilege, and before he could even reach a total halt, my [Azebans] were already hitting on its legs.

The [Species: (D - Boss) Doedicurus] couldn’t stay still, too slow to kill my summons with its paws, and it couldn’t charge, or it would suffer another critical hit.

The monster ended up getting way more aggressive and strong as we damaged it more and more, even changing all of its patterns, getting covered in red aura at some point, but my sister and I managed to come up with new strategies and defeated it anyways; and our wounds were limited to just the loss of one of my fingers, and a cut from my forehead to my chin, and Hunah’s broken shield hand. Still, as I watched the corpse disintegrate, letting behind a flail made out of its tail, I couldn’t avoid but to feel… disappointed.

Was that [Dungeon] purposefully favoring Hunah or something?

“Come on, man, you leveled up thrice, right?”, While holding her newest cool weapon, Hunah tried to cheer me up to no avail.

“…Sure.”

“…Hey, there are still two more bosses, maybe your new skill will work next time?”

I sighed.

“Yeah. Thanks”, I replied, forcing a smile. I should have expected that. It was only a 5% chance of success, after all. 5% of chance of permanently learning how to summon any creature I defeated through my newest skill: [Dissection].

Suddenly, then, a pop up showed up for both of us:

[“H- Hey? You alive?”]

“Uh, [Dungeon]? Yes, we just killed your first boss”, I replied.

[“What, only now? No- I mean… W- Woooow! You two are so amaaazing!”]

“Yeah, yeah, thank you”, Hunah sighed. “So… do you have anything you want to tell us?”

[“Oh, well, you know… How are you doing?”]

“Good?”, I said.

["Good, hu? Cool, cool… Um… Nice weather, hu?”]

I forced a laugh, saying:

“Sure, nice… weather. Anyway, we already killed the boss, but I can’t see any passage to the second floor.”

[“Oh, yeah, oh yeah. The second floor! Th- That’s why I showed up only now… Look up!”]

We did as instructed, and right over our heads, in the very center of the room, the roots on the ceiling started to untangle, showing a bright white hole, and extend downwards, forming a ladder.

“Oh, thanks”, I said, climbing up.

Before Hunah came after me, I heard her thanking the [Dungeon] too, though:

“Thanks for the items too. See you in the next boss room.”

[“Y- Yeah! ‘Till next time! Can’t- Can’t wait until you guys reach the boss room so we can talk a little more, haha… ha…”], The [Dungeon] wrote a final time, and I lifted myself through the hole on the ceiling.

“Cold”, I said, climbing off the underground, hugging myself, and looking around.

I stood on top of a tall hill, but the scenery beyond was of a snow-covered forest way too different from the bright green jungles I’ve been walking through up to that point. Even more alien was the fact that the horizon was incredibly distorted, as if I was standing on a very tinny planet… Well, I possibly was, once that I thought about it.

In the very opposite direction from my exit point, a gigantic tree seemed to stand out, and all the other vegetation on the forest seemed to be smaller copies of said tree, with shinny yellow roots popping here and there. It was, obviously, our next destination.

[“Welcome! To the Megabivore Dungeon, 2nd Floor!”]

“Company already?”, Hunah pointed, pulling her cape tighter.

Following her vision, I noticed a very tall quadruped creature with huge antlers:

[Species: Cervalces scotti, level: 33]

“Well, be it sooner or later, it doesn’t matter: we will extinguish this floor’s life too anyway”, I said, and prepared for battle: not only I wanted a warm coat, but I’d also definitely make my newest skill worth it, if not with a proper boss, at least with a [Dungeon] monster.