The boss had leveled up since they’d entered the dungeon. They didn’t know how a boss leveled up when it couldn’t leave the dungeon, but it had. Now they had to deal with a boss monster that was around ten levels higher than the party. Gaia nearly got hit by one of the boss’ tentacles while she was analyzing it, but Shadow was able to block it. The barbs along the appendages were longer than the suckers so Shadow luckily hadn’t been grabbed and dragged off. That did bring up a problem. There were dozens of these tentacles coming out of the water. They needed to deal with them before being able to focus on the boss’ main body.
The tentacles were currently the biggest problem. They reached all the way around the monster and were able to reach anywhere within the chamber. The group was currently dodging them as they swung around the room trying to slash or grab the party. They quickly got into a formation around Fergus and Stephanie. The two were the main ranged combatants and they focused on attacking the tentacles. Whenever one would get close Shadow would slash it with her claws or block the attack.
Griff focused on dodging and trying to land a few hits on the tentacles. Fergus had his sword out so he could slash the incoming appendages hoping they could remove them from the fight. Stephanie had her musket out firing at the main body. She’d switch off firing at the head and smashing tentacles with Fergus. Malachite was bashing the tentacles with his shell and spiked armor hoping to slow them down and allowing the party to attack them.
Liv was firing poison shots at any part of the monster she could while Antonio did the same with his psychic attacks. Gaia’s vines were working with her chaos pathways to cut and bleed the monsters appendages while she constantly tried to poison the boss with her field. She wasn’t blocking any hits due to the high possibility of being grappled.
The party was currently stuck. They couldn’t deal much damage to the tentacles being swung at them and therefore were trapped trying to block or deflect the attacks. Stephanie’s hammer strikes were just sliding off the appendages while Fergus couldn’t get a good cut on them either. The only things actually cutting the tentacles were the vines. These couldn’t sever them though they only made them bleed.
After about five minutes of being pelted with attacks, Gaia’s poison finally took effect. It wouldn’t do much but would start dealing some damage. Antonio was firing some spikes at the monster, but his condition hadn’t taken effect yet. The group continued trying to deal with the tentacles when after about ten minutes one of them was severed. It looked like it was almost shriveled up when Fergus sliced it with his sword.
They didn’t fully know why it worked but guessed it might have been the bleeding since it had stopped. They started to have Gaia slash them with her vines as often as possible. She started using her chaos pathways with every strike of her vines. This made them faster and caused the cut to be deeper causing more blood loss. They also had Fergus try his gust blade skill when it was starting to shrivel.
This seemed to be the fastest way to remove the tentacles. It only took them another twenty minutes to deal with the ones near their section of the room. They had a slight reprieve from the tentacles before they moved around to take as many out as they could. Around an hour later they had taken out about half of the boss’ tentacles.
This was when something changed. The remaining appendages were pulled under the water and the boss’ head lunged at the party. They were barely able to get out of the way by a well-placed counter from Griff. As it lunged the lower jaw about hit him and he was able to counter it by bashing its head upward. The boss’ head then went just above their heads and they all quickly attacked it as its teeth were lodged in the wall.
It couldn’t remove its teeth from the dungeons wall, so it just crunched down on it until a section broke. This allowed it to return to the center of the room and dropped a large chunk of the wall where it had struck. The party had to dodge to the sides of the new blockade causing them to be split up. Fergus, Stephanie, Griff, and Shadow were together. While Gaia, Malachite, Liv, and Antonio were stuck alone.
The boss turned towards Fergus’ group as they were the ones that had severed its tentacles. It brought its head down onto the section of stone with a little bit of water and its lamprey tongues darted out at the group. Fergus and Griff dodged two as Shadow blocked one that went for Stephanie. She was able to smack it with her hammer which caused it to flatten out against the floor. A moment later the flattened tongue looked to fill back up as if it hadn’t been attacked.
While the other group dealt with the boss’ head, Gaia’s group had to deal with the remaining tentacles that had come back up trying to strike them. Her poison was still stacking, albeit very slowly. She was using her vines to bleed the tentacles as Malachite used his shell bash to divert their strikes. Liv focused on firing poison shots at the boss’ while Antonio had finally inflicted his Phantasmal Ache condition.
The boss slowed down a bit due to Antonio’s curse. It weakened the affected area which this time happened to be its head. This had a much bigger effect than anyone thought it would. As the curse affected the head it caused the monster to slow, the boss also stopped randomly as it felt the pain allowing Fergus’ group to land a few hits. This also slowed its tentacles down allowing Gaia and Malachite a few moments to breathe.
The main issue Gaia faced was that no one in her group could really sever the tentacles. Malachite could bite them, but it wouldn’t cause them to be removed. Antonio wasn’t big enough to be able to bite through them either as each one was about a foot thick at the smallest section. The tentacles they dealt with were almost all shriveled now but were still being swung at them.
They were much slower due to the damage but still attacking. After realizing it was only taking more damage from the group by its head, the boss lifted back up and switched sides as Gaia’s poison was starting to ramp up dealing more and more damage as it stacked. It started by bringing the shriveled tentacles up to attack Stephanie’s group and lunging its head forward at Gaia’s. It lunged at them and they were barely able to get out of the way of its toothy maw. They used the moment it tried to shut its mouth to hit it with a few strikes. Malachite hit it with a spiked shell bash that put another poison stack on it as Gaia slashed it with her vines. Liv and Antonio hit it with their magic.
Fergus and Stephanie fired arrows and bullets at the boss’ head while Shadow slashed the slow-moving tentacles. Griff launched a few mana shots at the monsters head. Gaia’s group continued to narrowly dodge the monster’s bites while attacking whenever it got stuck on the wall or slowed due to the conditions. They were slowly dealing damage, but the party was tiring from the onslaught of attacks.
After a few more bites at Gaia’s group Shadow was able to sever the last tentacles that attacked their side. This enraged the boss as it let out an unearthly screeching noise. It caused Gaia and Shadow to stop and cover their ears which gave it just enough time to lunge at Gaia. The monster’s massive teeth closed around her as she was slowed by the deafening sound.
Luckily for her, the monsters teeth closed around her without hitting her. It was also unable to fully close due to the massive protrusions. She had to use her vines to cut the wriggling lamprey like tongues to dodge them and also got a couple cuts around its mouth. Then she was able to jump over the teeth that had closed behind her as the monster retracted its head.
Her other party members were horrified for the few moments after the attack. All they had seen was Gaia stop, cover her ears and then the monster closed its jaws around her. They thought she had been swallowed whole or wounded badly. Then they saw her appear from the boss’ jaws completely fine. The only odd part of the image was the boss’ odd colored blood. It was almost pure white aside from a tinge of red.
As Gaia was extricating herself from the monster’s jaws its blood had splattered over her. She just felt the cold blood of the monster cover her from the bleeding cuts she caused. She started moving towards the rest of her group as everyone moved towards each other. Luckily, Gaia’s poison had been stacking more and more as the battle continued. It was stacking more often than when the fight began.
The boss was starting to waver as the conditions affecting it got worse and the damage the party had inflicted worsened. The monster had more and more wounds covering it and was slowing more and more as Antonio’s condition stacked up. It appeared its resistance had finally been surpassed by the collective onslaught. The party finally met back up as the boss slowly turned to the congregated group.
It attempted one last big attack as the party prepared for it. The boss began pulling more of its body out of the hole and raising its head higher and higher. It rose high enough to escape Gaia’s field. Then she heard the sound of something massive rushing downwards as the boss’ head swiftly appeared in her field directly above them.
The main problem was that its jaws were spread so far apart that they were almost parallel with the ground. The only place they could move, to try and escape being crushed, was the center where its throat was. They weren’t fast enough to be able to run far enough to escape its attack. The monsters jaws spread out to encompass almost her entire field.
Gaia quickly pulled her bonds into their tattoos as she grabbed her friends close. The monster’s maw slammed into the floor, and they felt the air around them become wet. The monster’s skull partially shattered due to the force of its attack. Its teeth dug into the stone and a section of the rock broke as it tried to pull its jaws closed. The party was within its throat while Gaia had a section of the monster’s skull that had broken inward stabbing her in the back. The other party members were in the same state with parts of the broken bones sticking inwards.
They didn’t understand how it was still alive with its skull at least partially shattered but they felt the rock beneath them shudder slightly. Then they felt the floor move and started tilting upwards. They quickly began trying to grab anything they could to hold themselves up. Gaia didn’t have anything she could hold aside from jagged sections of the skull that pierced inwards. She grabbed them and felt her hands bleed.
Fergus was able to stab his sword in the side of its throat to hold himself up along with a bone shard. Griff was precariously holding himself in between four pieces of bone and Stephanie had her hammer over another section giving herself a handhold. Gaia used her vines and Chaos pathways to bleed the monster more. While she did so she was desperately holding onto her handhold which was quickly becoming slippery from blood. Both hers and the monster’s.
As her hands bled and held onto the jagged bone shard she felt more and more pain. As her pain increased, she felt something odd, she felt like her strength was increasing slightly. As her pain increased, and she continued slashing with her vines she started noticing the cuts they left became deeper and bled more. She also felt like she was lighter than before. She didn’t fully get why that was happening but was happy she was dealing more damage.
The others weren’t able to really attack from how they were holding themselves. Then Gaia remembered she could bring her bonds back out and she spoke to Malachite through their bond.
“Hey buddy. I’m gonna bring you back out, but I need you to levitate yourself and grow right when I do alright?” She asked him.
“Okay. Will do.” He replied immediately.
The next moment she brought him out of the tattoo. As she did, he appeared directly behind her and fell a few feet before catching himself with telekinesis. Then he grew before coming up under her until her feet were on his shell. She let go and landed on his shell before he did the same for the others. They were then able to attack from his shell.
They were attacking for a while, and they were becoming more worn out the longer they attacked. It was getting harder and harder to breathe as the air was very wet and the rock above them seemed to be cutting off any air from getting down the monster’s throat. They were all starting to slow down their attacks as they couldn’t take any deep breaths.
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They were in a fight against time now. They all attacked trying to bring the monster down before they suffocated. They attacked with everything they had. After a few more minutes of attacking something changed as they felt the monster’s body go slack and it fell. They were able to walk along the side of its throat now and they all focused on cutting their way out the side of it.
It took some time to cut through the few feet of muscle and skin before they were outside of the boss’ throat. The moment they were outside they took deep ragged breaths as they were finally able to get some oxygen. They moved to the boss room’s wall to rest for a bit and catch their breath until the boss dissolved or somehow attacked again. They desperately hoped for the former and it dissolved a few minutes later. When it did Gaia heard something large and heavy drop in the shallow water.
When she pushed her field back out, she sensed a large chest. It was a large cube shape with stubby feet on each corner. The top and bottom sections were split by an almost invisible line with a large circular design sticking out slightly. The group rested for another couple minutes, knowing the boss was dead, before going up to the chest.
They looked around it for a minute trying to see if it was trapped or not. From what they could see and feel it wasn’t. Gaia went ahead and pressed the large circular design that appeared to be a type of button. As soon as it was pressed there was a loud click and the sound of metal moving across stone as the chest opened upward. When it had fully opened, the lid fell backwards and there was a screen that popped up in front of her. From her friends reactions the same had happened to them.
Quest: Defeat the Dungeon Boss 1/1
Reward: Unique Title and Class Improvement (Item or Skill)
Title: Dungeon Conqueror (Deep Caves) – Holder has conquered the (Deep Caves) Dungeon by defeating the Boss. Holder’s resistance to water attributed mana is increased.
Hidden Title: Boss Slayer – Holder has killed the boss monster of a dungeon at least twelve levels higher than their own. All attacks deal slight Magic and Spiritual Damage when the monster has a higher level than their own. Damage dealt scales depending on the difference in level. Effects can stack with other similar effects.
The group was shocked on getting two titles. They knew they’d get the first, the effects of the Dungeon Conqueror Title depended on the dungeons type. It usually increased resistance to the type of mana the boss used. The second was a different story. They didn’t know there would be a hidden title because of the level difference.
It was truly a welcome surprise though. It would allow them to deal more straight damage to monsters as long as they were a higher level than them. The spiritual damage would even allow them to hurt monsters that were a rank above them with less difficulty. Magic damage was useful as it affected something’s defensive barrier directly where as if someone blocked an attack with a shield or sword it would cause the damage to their barrier to be reduced. Magic damage bypassed the physical defenses and hit the defensive barrier directly. It did not help against monsters of a higher rank due to the rank difference.
After reading through the titles effects and being happily surprised, Gaia analyzed the items in the chest. There were four items in total as only the the four had classes to receive something for. The first item was shaped like a ring, the second was a pair of small aquatic eggs, the third was what appeared to be a large arrow, and the last was a scroll. She analyzed each of the items.
Weapon Ring – Bonding growth Item. A ring with a small storage space within. Can hold up to three weapons within that can be put in and taken out instantaneously. Requires blood to bind.
Eggs of Reach – Bonding growth Item. A pair of aquatic eggs that must be implanted within the host’s thighs. Creates scaled leg armor with tentacles made from the hide of an Abyssal Chimera when stimulated with mana. Tentacles allow user’s kicks a longer reach. Has a chance to grapple and bleed targets.
Arrow Dagger – Bonding Growth item. The arrowhead of a giant arrow that is more suited to melee strikes than being fired. Can be affected by skills using arrows instantly and without being fired. Counts as an arrow instead of a melee weapon. Requires blood to bond.
Skill Scroll: Transfer – A scroll holding the Transfer skill. Transfer allows the user to transfer injuries to and from Bonded creatures. Injuries transferred from bonds do not damage the spirit and heal quicker. Injuries transferred to bonds heal much slower and can’t be healed using magic. Severed appendages require mana to restore.
Gaia explained what each item was before handing them out. It was pretty obvious what item was for each person. She liked the Transfer skill a bit but didn’t like how it would allow her to transfer injuries to them. She was used to getting hurt and didn’t want them to get hurt. She could see the use though. If she got her leg hurt like before she could transfer it to get away and likely survive a fatal attack while her bond would be able to heal the injury just extremely slowly.
It wasn’t something she would use unless absolutely necessary. She did like how she would be able to take some of their injuries to herself and heal them much quicker, which might help her save them if needed. The rest of her party seemed a bit worried about the effects of her skill. They did, however, seem to like their items. Stephanie’s item was a ring with three indentations around its outside. It would allow her to put a few weapons inside and call them out whenever she needed them. This meant she wouldn’t need to carry her great hammer, musket, and flamethrower on herself anymore. She could instead call them out when needed and switch between them much quicker. If she needed to fire a shot and then pull out her hammer it would be almost instant now. When she put a weapon in it, it caused an extremely small version to appear in an indentation.
Griff hadn’t implanted his items yet, but seemed to like what they could do. They looked like large octopus eggs. Remembering how much it hurt to implant her own, Gaia understood why and figured he’d do it when they got back to the inn. This would give him a slightly longer range for his attacks allowing him to have a few more options for strategies.
Fergus seemed to really like his item. It was the end of a large arrowhead that seemed to be broken. The arrowhead was broken to be curved like a dagger while the arrow shaft was thick like a swords grip. It allowed him to use his arrow skills on it without needing to fire it. It gave him a viable melee weapon that he could use his wind skills with.
Overall, the dungeons rewards were much better than anyone expected. They didn’t know if it was because of the difficulty of the dungeon rising while they were inside or something else, but they liked it. They all stopped for a moment as Stephanie and Fergus bound their items. Griff and Gaia were going to wait until they returned to the inn since they weren’t sure how his implantation or her skill acquisition would go.
They could go easily with no problem or cause them to be unable to move for a while. They would rather be somewhere safe than inside the mana dense environment the dungeon had created. They walked around the edge of the boss room trying to find a way back up but couldn’t find one. They would need to try and use Malachite to get back up or wait until the League sent someone to find them.
They tried Malachite first. Shadow was put inside her tattoo alongside Antonio and Liv to lessen the weight on Malachite. Gaia had to take control of her armor and just put it into the usual long dress. Malachite started raising himself with telekinesis while the party was on his back. It was tiring and slow, but he got them all back up.
They rested on the outcropping they’d used before the boss fight. They waited for a few minutes before they set out back towards the second floor. They ran into a few monsters, but they were quickly handled by Stephanie and Fergus with their new weapons. They made the pair much stronger, and they killed about twelve monsters within a half hour of traveling. The pair could kill most monsters within seconds since they’d leveled up due to the boss.
Gaia and her bonds had leveled up twice while Stephanie had leveled up three times. Fergus and Griff had leveled up once themselves. They made their way out of the remaining two floors quickly as the monsters stood no chance with their higher levels and equipment. When they exited the caves that had been the dungeon, they found someone waiting outside. It had just turned dark, and the person was Bronze rank.
“Awesome. You’re done. I was worried when I saw the dungeon had leveled up while you were in there. Since the dungeon was destroyed, I guess you guys killed the boss right?” He asked.
“Yeah. Was a hard fight but we managed somehow. It’s dark already? We can’t have been in there that long, right? Oh well, I guess we’re roughing it for the night.” Griff stated.
“Nope. I’m here to lead you all back to the city. The guards already know to expect us so they’ll let us in. We can thank the League for that.” The Hunter said.
“Great.” Stephanie replied.
“Shall we?” The Hunter asked.
“Please.” Gaia replied as Malachite grew to his new size and she restocked his armor.
The party climbed onto Malachites shell and sat in the comfy loveseats while the scout led them back to the city. They were thankful to have someone take them back as they were exhausted after the slog through the dungeon. It didn’t help that stronger monsters came out at night along with most monsters being slightly stronger or more aggressive at night. The Hunter leading them was likely used to dealing with monsters at night which helped them relax slightly.
It didn’t take them super long to reach the city, but they went at a pace similar to a jog. Malachite kept up with the scout easily since they were going somewhat slow. When they got into Boundary the party went to the League to get their reward and then went sleep for the night. They went in and saw Freya waiting for them.
“I see it ended well.” She said.
“Yeah, for the most part at least. The boss had leveled up while we were inside, but we were able to deal with it.” Fergus replied.
Freya looked to the hunter that brought them in, and he nodded. Confirming what they just said. They were given seventy-five cores for the request, which was welcome since it was harder than it was originally reported. They’d also gotten some cores and materials from Stephanie’s looting ability bringing the total to about a hundred stone cores. After they finished counting it all out Freya said something that caused them all to stop and cheer.
“Well, the League hasn’t been able update your badges because of everything that’s happened but they finally ordered it. Your party will all receive two arrows on their badge. Sorry it’s taken so long but with the Mana Torrent then the stampede and killer caused everything to be hectic. I can go ahead and add them now if you pass me your badges.” She stated.
The party all handed their badges over and after about ten minutes they were handed back with their new arrows at the bottom left of its face. The party celebrated after that for a bit and started towards the inn. When they arrived at the inn Griff implanted his new items. These were much weirder to implant. Griff had made the two cuts in his thighs as he was told by its description but after they were implanted nothing happened for about a minute until he suddenly grunted from pain.
Then there was an odd fluctuation in his mana before his legs seemed to start wriggling like something was trying to break free from them. Then from the cuts he made a few tentacles wriggled out and curled around his leg all the way down to around his foot. It wasn’t as thick as the boss’ tentacles but were still a few inches in diameter. After the tentacles finished wrapping around his legs they seemed to disappear. What Fergus and Stephanie saw was the tentacles adhered to his leg and almost meld into them. There was an intricate tattoo along Griff’s legs that had a broken scaled pattern along every inch of his leg.
When Griff put some mana into them the tentacles reappeared with hard scales covering his legs. The tentacles also seemed to end under his foot and when he kicked a tentacle shot out in the direction of his kick for about ten feet. He was happy with his new item as he sprinted out his door and they could hear him doing multiple kick attacks.
Gaia used her item which just required her to put some mana into the scroll. Then the mana would be pulled back in while carrying the skill with it. It was a weird feeling, like getting shot. She felt a small pinprick of pain when she pulled the skill in, but her head started pounding when the skills information was forced into her brain and spirit. After about five minutes of a grueling migraine, she understood exactly how the skill worked.
If one of her bonds had an injury all she had to do was pull it through their bond and it would transfer to her. To do the opposite she just had to push the wound through the bond. It seemed odd since it would transfer a physical wound through their bond. Her best guess of why it could work was the fact her body was partly spiritual allowing her to take or give wounds through the spiritual bond.
It wasn’t an overly impressive show but did give them all an idea on how skill scrolls worked for future reference. After Griff came back in, only due to Stephanie dragging him back inside, the group decided to head for bed. Stephanie and Gaia shared a room, and Gaia finally asked her something that had been on her mind for a bit.
“Would you mind telling me what my Bonds tattoos look like and where they are?” Gaia asked.
“Sure. Go ahead and I’ll tell you.” Stephanie replied.
The next moment Gaia called all of her bonds into her as tattoos. Stephanie then started describing each of the tattoos and their locations to her. Malachite’s Tattoo was on her back. It took up most of her back and was dark green and brown color in the shape of a large turtle shell. It had sharp edges and seemed to glow slightly. Liv’s Tattoo was on the spider web that her Living Silk Armor came from. She sat in the center of the web and was a slight red color. On the web she appeared like a spider that was wrapped in hundreds of thousands of threads woven together. Shadow’s Tattoo was just between her breasts and was a deep dark black flame with a wolf at its center. It looked to truly be burning with small dark wisps flying out of the inferno. Antonio’s Tattoo was on her left hand, starting from her palm up her arm a few inches. His was just a six-inch red ant with a cracked carapace that had fast pulsing purple light radiating from the cracks. She liked how they all looked considering she didn’t have any choice in the matter. After that she let her bonds back out and the entire group went to sleep.
