Chapter 174: Chapter 160: Competition

The tenth floor boss was, as expected, nothing on the scale of Dawnhold's. In fact, it consisted of only a single monster.

"That's a big snake," commented Cluma, and I couldn't help but agree. Fifteen metres long, perhaps? It was hard to judge, being curled up, but it was at least a metre in girth.

Anaconda Emperor, level 20

"Level twenty," I informed her. "I would advise against letting this one bite you."

"I didn't intend to."

It was the strongest monster Cluma had ever fought. It wasn't the strongest I'd fought, an honour that belonged to a pair of ogres, but this time I didn't have a hundred delvers backing me up. I did have a Cluma, though, which more or less made up for it. Besides, why should we fight fair?

"What big eyes it has," I stated with a grin, casting my buff spells. "Would be a shame if something happened to them."

"I'll take the right," laughed Cluma, and through my active [Mana Sight] I watched her draw her bow.

"Three. Two. One," I counted, before employing [Far Reach] to thrust with my sword-staff, timing the attack to coincide with Cluma's shot, both of us still standing comfortably outside the range that would trigger the boss to make the first move. The arrow faded into visibility as it left the effect of her [Stealth], but the snake didn't have time to dodge, and could only blink its heavy, scaled eyelids.

Both of our attacks pierced through, Cluma presumably having employed her combat artes to boost the unenchanted arrow. The anaconda hissed with pain and anger, slithering towards the pair of us. Cluma responded in kind, tossing her bow aside and charging forward, drawing her daggers as she went.

The snake didn't react, presumably not having any senses that could detect her, leaving me to deal with its aggression. Its head darted forward, jaws snapping shut around me, but I already had [Weft Walk] active and was more than fast enough to dodge. I flickered around it, making more swings with [Far Reach] with each chance I got, and blasting it with ineffectual bolts of lightning, but not making any attempt to approach it.

Cluma, meanwhile, took advantage of the distraction I was providing by running down its length, dragging her daggers through its flesh as she went, leaving a pair of heavy gashes. Unaware of what was attacking it, the snake could only react by thrashing around at random.

Blood was pouring from the wounds that Cluma was making, courtesy of her bleeding wounds enchantments, but the anaconda had pure mass on its side. There was a lot of room in its massive body for spare blood. Its random thrashing continued, and its tail caught Cluma in the stomach, launching her into the air and sending her flying across the room.

I clamped down on my instinctive panic, thanks to my earlier telling-off. I could see her rotating in the air, preparing to land. She was fine.

We'd taken out its eyes, but it was still tracking me, despite not being able to track Cluma. It must be picking up mana, scent or sound. Scent or sound, I could do nothing about, but mana was a possibility. On a whim, I stilled the mana around myself, trying to mask my presence and blend in with the background.

The snake hissed, ceasing its movement despite pointing straight at me. So, it really was using mana. I side-stepped, approaching slowly, trying to be as quiet as I could, but its head snapped around. Not to point at me, though, but at Kikrizzik, who was lazing around the portal, watching with a huge grin on her face. She was now the only one the snake could sense.

Before the snake had a chance to attack her, I leapt forward, employing the full strength of my [Superimpose] boosted arm to drive my sword-staff into the roof of its head. Cluma was back on her feet, too, running towards us. The snake reared, throwing me off, but the [Acrobatic] Cluma leapt up, neatly landing on the top of my staff and stamping down hard, driving the spike deep into the boss's brain.

ding
Skill [Armour Break] advanced to level 7
Skill [Superimpose] advanced to level 5
Skill [Expert Mana Finesse] advanced to level 13

"Yay, I gained a class level!" exclaimed Cluma.

"Lucky. Although I did get two from the research institute the other day, so I'm not going to complain."

"What? Two? No wonder you like experimenting on yourself."

"Class levels had nothing to do with it, although I'll admit they were a nice bonus." It was half a year's worth of levels in one day, after all. If I could keep that up, I'd be rank five in a season or two. Alas, I doubted my next session would be so rewarding.

"Well, that was an interesting fight," interjected Kikrizzik, walking up to us. Or at least, up to me. "But just how long are you going to keep [Stealth] active? How much mana do you have, for goodness' sake?"

"This much!" exclaimed Cluma, gesturing uselessly, given that Kikrizzik couldn't see her.

"She's holding her hands wide," I informed her, "but it's a moot question anyway. She regenerates mana at least double the speed that [Stealth] consumes it."

I'd have to do some maths at some point to work out how big the difference really was. I knew it was more than double, because she'd already out-regenerated the cost of [Stealth] before gaining her [Magical Beast] trait.

Kikrizzik went wide eyed, staring in the general direction of Cluma's voice. Not that she was there; she'd gone running off to open the chest. "She is beastkin, right? Your ears were obviously fake, but isn't she a real one?"

"Yup, she's a real one. I'm not sure what happened. I swear she was normal when we were kids, albeit a bit [Hyperactive]."

"Oi! I can hear you!" yelled Cluma. "If I'm abnormal, it's completely your fault for being contagious."

"That... may be accurate," I admitted.

"Heh. There sure are interesting people in the world," said Kikrizzik.

"What was in the chest, anyway?" I called at Cluma.

"Some sort of coloured stone? Feels a bit like a monster core, but it's smaller, not glowing and not round."

"So not really very much like a monster core, then?"

"I meant the texture!"

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She reappeared, holding a small, red lump in her fingers.

"You get gemstones in this chest," said Kikrizzik. "It's random what sort, and they aren't big, but they all sell well back upstairs."

"Oh. It's a ruby!" I realised. A reagent in alchemy or enchanting, but not for anything that I could make with my rank one [Basic Crafting].

"A ruby? I thought they were supposed to be pretty?"

"That's a raw stone. It needs to be cut and polished before it looks like the sort of gems you're thinking of, but it can be used as a reagent as is."

"You took out the boss easily, but you're talking like you've never opened a floor ten chest before? Oh! You said you both have [Novice Delver], and the shy one said you'd only just arrived on the island. This is your first dungeon deeper than ten floors, and this is the deepest you've reached?"

"Shy?!" exclaimed Cluma, scandalised.

"Well, you do seem to spend a lot of time hiding," pointed out the grinning demon.

"Yes and yes," I answered, while the 'shy' Cluma jumped on Kikrizzik's head, apparently trying to prove something. "That's the first floor ten chest we've opened that wasn't from a final boss."

"Heh. Wish I was that good at your age. But I still have plenty of life ahead of me. I ain't giving up just yet."

"You didn't strike me as the giving up type to begin with. But we should be getting back home. Nice meeting you."

"Yup. Good luck on your delving!" agreed Cluma, bouncing back to the portal. We followed her through it, back into the safe room, which was still empty.

"You're heading back to the camp? Didn't you bring enough supplies? Given how easily you beat that boss, you should be able to make it to the next portal, rather than leaving from this one."

"Who said anything about the camp?" asked Cluma, invoking [Orb of Darkness] repeatedly. I tore them apart almost as soon as she made them, but it was still very obvious she was spell-casting.

ding
Skill [Expert Mana Control] advanced to level 15.
Class [Eldritch Mage] advanced to level 18
Class level increased intelligence by 1

Oh, I did get a class level after all! And I've maxed my first rank three skill!

"Whu?" asked Kikrizzik. "Why are you throwing away all of your mana?"

"Because I need to be very low mana to teleport. Bye-bye!" said Cluma, still waving invisibly even when I tapped her and sent her back to Dawnhold.

"My skills let me teleport in and out of dungeons," I explained. "No camping for us. We're going back home to sleep."

"Bah. I thought you two were cool, and then you do something boring like that. Go back to your comfy bed to sleep then, you coddled little kid."

Wow. I'd expected most delvers to be jealous, but this demon saw it as weakness. Saying that, I could fit a bed into my [Item Box], and this room was safe, so I could sleep here in comfort if I really wanted to. It was a shame I'd dropped my new bed off at home so soon after buying it. I'd have loved to take it out in front of her right now and climb in.

"We'll both be going after the solo clear title at some point, so we'll have to camp out then," I pointed out, lying down and activating [Redistribute].

"So am I, and I'm not going to lose to you two."

"Hah. It's a race then!"

Kikrizzik flashed a smirk. "Indeed. I'll soon prove you two are too soft for this job."

She continued to smirk as I teleported, remembering to hide my left behind tooth with [Shelter].

"Apparently we have ourselves a competition," I said to Cluma, who had been waiting for me. "Kikrizzik thinks we're too soft to solo clear the dungeon."

"Oh? Now we're going to need to hurry. Think we can clear it together by the end of the week?"

"I'm... not sure, to be honest. We beat that boss easily enough, but remember, that was the strength of regular mobs on floor twenty. The final boss will be far worse."

And even though we beat it, it took time and teamwork, with us getting a devastating first strike, and Cluma still took a hit. It wasn't like the mobs, which we could dispatch casually.

Actually, the skin looked familiar; it held the same pattern as the armour of the local delvers. It wasn't just the strength of the mobs on floor twenty. It must be the actual monster that's down there, or else there's something else in this dungeon with the same skin. Maybe lower level anacondas?

"Hmm... Well, let's see what happens when we reach floor fifteen."

Cluma hugged me goodbye and departed to her own home, leaving me alone. A house all to myself. No Darren charging in whenever I used magic. No dad making suggestive comments about black lace. No mum sewing in the corner. It was... lonely. That was how I'd lived back on Earth, but now it felt empty.

I lay in my new bed for a bit, finding sleep elusive, before giving up and teleporting back to the village, soon falling asleep to the background of dad's snoring.

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