694 Monica Grows Stronger
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Since Monica entered the Dungeon that even as Blake wasn’t there, she felt as if he was watching over them. As they went through the trials of the first floor of the dungeon, she noticed as if he was protecting them, even when he wasn’t even present.
After their first break, she woke up a few hours later, and the girls quickly packed things up to move to Floor 2. They wanted to hasten the place and finish things in the least amount of time possible, of course, without sacrificing breaks.
The Second Floor looked like the same cave area as the first one. Labyrinthian in nature, but thanks to the map they had bought before, the girls were able to guide themselves across the dungeon and its many traps too.
Fighting hordes of up to twenty Giant Rats at once, they took consecutive breaks while fighting. Monica couldn’t simply curse and stay still anymore, any sort of help aided in battle in this stage, so she showcased her ability to fight with venomous and cursed daggers that she had enchanted with her magic.
Her swift movements and light-weighed body made her an ideal rogue-type fighter, while inflicting curses, she fought by launching daggers imbued with curses and poison. This helped her allies while keeping her still frail body away from battle. Although her physique helped her in gaining health and vitality stats, she was still not as strong enough to actively take hits in battle.
One after another, the groups of Giant Rats kept coming, Frost Rats and Ground Rats occasionally appearing and firing ice and earth magic projectiles, making this expedition slightly more difficult. However, Monica’s teamwork with her companions proved to be essential as they got through these waves of enemies with great cooperation and amazing coordination.
Eventually, the end of the Floor 2 was being guarded by the Floor Boss, a Frost Ground Giant Rat, a dual-element foe with Frost and Earth Magic. It had the defenses of the Ground Rat, as it was covered on plates of hard stone, and the lethal ice magic of the Frost Rats, coupled with a big body with several points of HP.
This foe was incredibly hard. Monica and her allies struggled to fight it, as it could constantly regenerate wounds and constantly fire magic, while its defenses were very high.
However…
“[Voodoo Doll Magic]: [Curse of Silence]!”
Monica conjured a brand-new Skill, as she conjured a deadly curse that covered the mouth of her voodoo doll, as if stitching it with threads.
“GRYYAAAH?!”
The Rat suddenly stopped groaning, that last scream being the very last, as it couldn’t make a single sound. At the same time, its magic didn’t work either, it couldn’t cast any magic!
“Amazing, it’s not using magic anymore?!”
“This is a new skill!”
“It has been silenced of magic, girls, take it down!” Monica led her party much better than ever before, taking Blake as her role model. She fought with her companions, firing daggers and poisoning the monster to slowly take down its large health bar.
Her other friends attacked, some front liners had basic weapon-type spirits, such as Iron Spear, or a Silver Shield, another had a Iron Axe Spirit. Most of the commoners of Silvertide Kingdom usually were born with “metal-themed” spirits, usually either weapon-type, armor-type, or tool-type.
Only Monica’s noble family, who was specialized on Dark Arts Magic and Curse Magic developed more unique Spirits, such as her amazing Voodoo Doll, that transferred all of its pain into a target to inflict deadly, strong curses that couldn’t be easily gotten rid of.
BAAAAMM…!
The Boss monster gave its last breath as it fell into the floor, without even being able to scream properly, Monica and everyone couldn’t believe they made it, but it was amazingly well done. Blake would be proud.
“W-We did it!” Monica celebrated. “This is all thanks to Blake… This strength, and everything I’ve learned now…” She smiled, feeling more fulfilled and content with herself like never before.
She often thought of herself as incompetent, or insufficient as the heir of her family, this was the reason behind her insecurities, and how easily Blake ended provoking her and making her curse him back then… Which only ended on her learning a good lesson.
At first she thought he was just a cocky bully that only wanted to laugh at them for being weaker than him, but after she was taught by him, and after learning of his leadership skills and more, Monica slowly realized Blake was much more than that.
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“Yeah, that magic and your techniques were amazing.”
“Not only you support us with powerful curses but you can also attack from behind and weaken the foe even more.”
“Without you, we would had never been able to defeat that foe with our measly Weapon Spirits.”
“No doubt!”
“Geez, you girls are going to make me blush now…” Monica sighed, smiling faintly.
After taking down the second floor boss, Monica yet again took a break with her party of roughly five hours. Once they were done sleeping and eating, and going to the bathroom, the party continued down the third last floor.
“Ugh, I want to take a bath…” Monica sighed. “We better get this done with quickly!”
“Yeah! Let’s do it!”
“Alright”
“Uoooh!”
With her party of cheerleaders, Monica advanced across the last Floor, where the Giant Rat King rested, a powerful C Rank Boss, while all monsters usually were only C- Rank. The path there was perilous, filled with deadly and powerful giant rats they had confronted before, even the boss monsters from before became smaller, normal mobs there.
Because of this, they had to take constant breaks while moving through the shortest path towards the final boss. This is where Monica and her party started drinking most of their potions, and using the many other buffing items that Blake had sold to them too.
However, after over a day of traveling, they finally made it, to the last boss, the Giant Rat King, a gigantic rat of over thirty meters of height.
But to their surprise, this Rat held… something strange on its chest.
A purple-colored crystal…
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