Chapter 104: Exploring the Depths of the Dark Lair Dungeon!
Chapter 104: Exploring the Depths of the Dark Lair Dungeon!
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Frank explored the dungeon with his newly raised Undead, Nezhit, alongside his three tamed monster pets, Ruby, Zhulong, and Ginseng, as he defeated any monster that they went through with quite a lot of ease.
As the monster in this dungeon was mostly of Rank 1 Initial Stage (As monsters in Terra have Mana Cores and have the same cultivation stages as human/demi-humans), it was rather easy to dispose of them, but on occasions, rare Rank 1 Middle Stage monsters would appear within the deepest areas, which required a bit more of thought into the fight.
Frank had defeated around thirty monsters on his way through the dungeon alongside his party, gathering their corpses which also contained the Mana Cores within inside of his Inventory.
As he ran through the vast corridors and mapped a large area of the dungeon, he realized just how truly vast it was.
He had been running for two hours now at max speed, and yet, it seemed that he only had explored around a quarter of the entire Dungeon.
Deciding to take a quick break, Frank and his part found a special room within the vast dungeon corridors, where they had found the first treasure chest.
The treasure chest looked like the most classical treasure chest you could had on your mind, made of brown wood and decorated with bronze, it seemed to be incredibly tightly closed, but Frank uses his strength to open the entire thing, ending in breaking it apart.
Crack!
“Oops…”
Frank gave a bitter smile as the beautiful treasure chest was broken apart, but the treasures within were revealed to him.
Of course, it was a mere low-ranked treasure chest found in a low-rank dungeon, so he didn’t expect anything crazy from the rewards.
Frank glanced within the pile of wood, finding a book.
The book was brown-colored, and it had the symbol of a brown stone imprinted into its hardcover.
“Oh? It seems that we hit a jackpot here. To think that a Grimoire would pop up within a low-ranked dungeon…” said Frank.
“Congratulations my lord,” said Nezhit.
“Grawr!” said Ruby as she was munching on a large man-eating fish.
“A Grimoire? Oh, those devices that the people in here use to acquire spells?” asked Hades as he floated above the grimoire that Frank grabbed.
“Indeed, Grimoires can be either found inside of dungeons through the miraculous power of the Goddess of Chaos or made by very expert Magus…” said Frank.
“Interesting, so that Goddess really does materialize whole items inside of these dungeons? What kind of power is that? I would never expect a Goddess of Chaos to be capable of creating such amazing items that can even change the life of a person entirely… Wouldn’t she be more into destruction?” asked Hades, as a god, he knew very well of the nature of gods and how they interacted around their Divinities. On his mind, a Goddess of Chaos would never be this generous nor have the ability to materialize items like this so easily.
Although Gods could use their Divine Power to do various miracles that perhaps were far from their original divinity, it was still not possible for them to do it on such a wide scale as Dungeons, special areas that covered the entire world of Terra.
“Well that’s how the myths go, which are not just myths but actual facts in here, actually… The Goddess of Chaos might be related to destruction and perhaps other many things, but she seems to be capable of creating these dungeons, so they are most likely part of what she is capable of doing. Although it might be possible for other Gods to have helped her out with the creation of the dungeons,” said Frank.
“Hm… Well, I should not apply my own logic, this is another world after all… So, what type of Grimoire is it?” asked Hades.
“It is an Earth Attribute Grimoire, and it teaches any Earth Attribute Magus the ‘Boulder’ Spell… I think it simply summons a boulder? Way better than my Dirt Skill,” said Frank.
“Will you use it?” asked Hades.
“Not for now, I will just keep it saved in my Inventory, it might come in useful for another person, perhaps, I do not need offensive spells after the immense haul I got recently… Although it is still tentative, so I might end up considering it,” said Frank.
“Hm, you’re a very thoughtful brat, aren’t you? Are you really 17 years old as you said?” asked Hades.
“Well yes… What’s wrong with that?” asked Frank.
“Usually, brats your age would be all wild and horny with their hormones, sometimes just spitting some stupid idiocy or being edgy over why their parents don’t let them stay up late,” said Hades.
“Oh? So that’s what they do? I guess I never experienced that type of life,” said Frank with a calm tone, as he stretched his limbs and got ready to continue the dungeon diving.
“Very well, did everyone had their meal? Let’s continue,” said Frank, as he manipulated his Shadow and expanded it, making the four allies he had a hop in, and carrying the shadow near him.
As he continued through the dungeon, his companions would pop out of the shadows momentarily, using their spells, skills, or sheer strength (in Nezhit’s case) to fry, electrify, or squash any monster that appeared, while Frank took care of anything that could appear in front of him.
Like this, his efficiency increased exponentially, and he even gave himself the luxury of creating a clone which he left continuously conjuring spells or skills to gain some Skill Proficiency with them.
Meanwhile, Frank kept creating new Dark Death Devil Magic Spells, although his knowledge had begun to show that he could not go as far as beginner spells yet, especially because the Magic Skill was still level 1, even after being the combination of three.
“Gryar!”
As Frank continued the dungeon exploration of the Dark Lair Dungeon while nearing the center of the dungeon, the party came across a larger monster than usual, it was a Giant Demon Rat, the size of a car… It was still a Rank 1 Monster, but of the Upper Stage, rather ferocious and strong, it possessed high speed and sharp claws and tooth, although it was not a complete Boss Monster, it could be considered to be something like a Mini-Boss.
Nezhit immediately jumped in front of Frank, acting as an Undead Meat Shield, he used his enormous body and his log-like arms to tank the Rats slashes and bites, while sustaining great damage on its Undead flesh.
Even as an Undead, Frank noticed that if Nezhit continued like this, his HP would go down to zero in a few more seconds, he needed better armor if he genuinely wanted to act as his shield.
“I had created this Spell to heal Undead, however. It uses similar principles to Gift of Life, but instead of life, I give you death mana. I named it ‘Gift of Death’,” said Frank, as Ruby and Zhulong kept the rat in check, he healed Nezhit with his newly designed Spell, which used his combination of Death Mana and Body Aura, named Death Aura, to generate a mass of black energy that covered Nezhit’s wounds, healing him.
Frank could not use Gift of Life to heal Nezhit, of course, as Life Mana was effective against Undead, dealing damage instead of healing their rotten flesh or inert bodies (such as the bodies of a Living Armor for example).
“What? You brat, you made up that spell yourself? Do I even have something to teach you?!” asked Hades.
“Maybe…” said Frank as he ignored most of Hades’s whining.
Nezhit felt as his Health points quickly filled again, and a surge of undying strength took ahold of his dead body.
“Thanks, my lord…” said Nezhit, standing up and joining the fight once again.
“H-Hey! Wait for a second, don’t get directly to it again, I told you to not use your own flesh as a shield- Sigh…” said Frank, as Nezhit joined in with a strong charge, using his enormous arms to punch the rat’s snout, making it shriek in agony.
“Grrrryaarrr…!”
“Grawr!”
Ruby appeared from behind the rat, releasing several fireballs from around herself, the first Fire Attribute Spell she had devised by herself, Fireball.
The fireballs had the size of apples and were very small, but their speed and precision were greater than her own fire breath, they flew in a group of four, raining over the large rat and burning its dark hair.
The rat answered with the magic of its own, as Terra was a world where magic was everything, even monsters, when they grew strong enough, we’re able to conjure simple magic of their own.
The Rat evaded Nezhit’s upcoming punches as it fired three Dark Bullets of its own, each one directed to Ruby, Nezhit, and Zhulong with great precision!
Nezhit waved his arms as the dark bullet broke through one of them, leaving a large hole within the flesh. Although Nezhit couldn’t feel pain, he clearly feels his HP going down again.
Ruby fired her fire breath, intercepting the dark bullet and dissipating it with all of her power put into the breath.
Zhulong evaded it with swift movements, as it was a Thunder Ryujin, he was capable of natural flying like the classical Japanese dragons, even without having wings, it floated in the air as if it were an eel swimming in water.
“Let’s wrap this up, this one isn’t even a true boss, we can’t waste too much time with it,” said Frank, healing Nezhit’s wound and rushing towards the Giant Demon Rat, his entire body muscular mass increased, his skin turned pale white, and his eyes crimson red, releasing his Death Aura.
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