Chapter 47: Chapter 40, Smashing scorpions

Chapter 40, Smashing scorpions

 

 

Zelaria

Passing through the corridor leading away from the first scaled scorpion I kick and knee ten bone lizards rushing at me from seemingly nowhere, even from behind, as my ring blade tears through the annoyingly sturdy plant monsters. I also throw a ball of celestial flames at one especially large plant, burning the wriggling mass of vines to ash in a few seconds.

The next chamber has two scorpions, six bone lizards and as far as I can tell, two plant monsters to my left and right at either end. The chamber only has one corridor leading onwards, on the other side of the monsters, and I prepare myself as the ring blade zooms away, this time only cutting one of the bone lizards before going for a scorpion.

I rush and meet the other lizards, dashing left and right in zigzag patterns to make myself difficult to hit. Killing a lizard with a kick as I roll into a punch shattering another’s spine I barely dodge the first ray of cursed energy. I’m luckily saved from the other scorpion's attack as the ring blade cuts the tail cleanly off before it has a chance to fire it at me.

Jumping upwards, another beam of cursed energy going past beneath me I reorient myself with feet upwards in mid air as the ring blade turns in a sharp arc towards the last scorpion's tail. My feet connect with the moss covered ceiling at the same time as the shriek of the scorpion announces the passing of the blade. The four remaining bone lizards clustering below my position give me a crazy idea and I lower myself into an upside down crouch as my upwards momentum finally disappears.

Launching myself downwards from the ceiling with all the power I can put through my legs I incorporate a swift flip into the movement, barely managing to get my feet beneath me before I impact the ground in the middle of all four of the lizards. In the split second afforded to me as my knees bend from the impact I forcefully transfer all the kinetic mana of my upper body all the way to my feet, feeding it into the ground and amplifying it with 4000 mana worth of telekinetic force.

I feel my downwards momentum immediately disappear as I near the limit of how far my knees can bend. At the same time a visible ripple goes through the ground in a 2 meter radius from my feet, immediately followed by an ear splitting cracking of stone as the solid ground bursts outwards, forming a 30 centimeter deep crater beneath my feet and launching stone projectiles in all directions with the shockwave.

 

The projectiles of rock are joined by the shrapnel of bone and sprays of blood as the lizards previously surrounding me are torn apart by the impacts. I even see one stone going right into the eye of a scorpion through my sensor skill, actually making a small crack in the hard carapace and scales. I guide the ring blade to cut the vines that have nearly reached me as I sprint towards the scorpions, shuddering in rage and no doubt still trying to fire curses at me considering the sputtering sparks of cursed mana leaking from the cut off ends of their tails.

Without their curse beams I only have to watch out for their pincers and we dash and skitter around in a short, mad dance before I manage to get the first hit in on the side of a scorpion, using 2000 mana worth of telekinetic force to tear its insides to mush without cracking its shell too much. Repeating the same attack but with a kick instead of a punch on the other scorpion, instantly killing it, I slow down and stand still, taking in the scene of carnage with my ring blade already hovering behind my back.

“That. Felt. Amazing!”

I shout in glee before jumping around a little on the spot, doing a few improvised dance moves as Ari laughs merrily at my antics. I’m still grinning ear to ear after having extracted all four venom sacks from the scorpions, it was such a cool attack I’d improvised on the spot that I can’t help feeling proud of myself.

“It’s honestly an ingenious idea, Zel, and I suppose we could use it both as an attack like you just did or to dampen our momentum if we ever are sent flying into a wall or fall down from a high altitude.”

“I didn’t think about that. What if we jumped from a mountaintop and transferred all that momentum into the ground, would we survive unscathed?”

Ari rolls her eyes and I realize the obvious fault in that plan before she even speaks up.

“No, Zel. Not unless we manage to somehow transfer all that force out of our body into the ground in the incredibly short timespan we’re connected to the ground but not yet dead. We’ll need an incredibly high skill level and a much shorter response time from our mana nerve before it’s possible.”

Slashing the scaled, gray exoskeleton of the scorpions open with the blade sections and pulling the cores out with telekinesis I start walking towards the corridor leading further ahead. I still have 7 more scorpions to harvest before I’ve completed a single iteration of the posting, after all.

 

---

The exoskeleton gives way beneath my fist as my sensors pick up on the telekinetic force running through the scorpion's insides, turning them to mush, as I twist in mid air and barely dodge another beam of curse mana. Landing on the collapsing scorpion I jump backwards in a backflip, avoiding the floor littered with the dozens of bone lizards crawling all over each other in order to get to me.

Landing with an axe kick on the spine of a lizard, cracking it with the additional telekinetic force I spin around lashing out at four different lizards coming at me at once, killing all of them with punches and kicks before once more launching myself in a new direction, barely avoiding the curse beams from the frenzied scorpions.

Severing another scorpion’s tail with the ring blade while airborne, I make my way towards that scorpion immediately after landing on another lizard, using it as a springboard and utterly destroying it in my wake with the amplified force of my legs. Dodging between the pincers at my insane speed towards it, I knee it in the face with enough force to utterly destroy the topmost half, tearing most of the contents away with the upper exoskeleton and sending it flying.

Barely touching the ground, only killing one lizard, I’m immediately off again in order to not get cursed to oblivion by the remaining 9 scorpions. I’ve already killed 4 of them and about a dozen bone lizards in this chamber alone. It’s definitely the deadliest trap I’ve encountered so far.

I’d just stepped into an empty chamber off to the side from the main path heading towards the floor guardian, spotting the bronze chest placed at the other end of the chamber before the wall behind me slammed down with an ominous bang, sealing me in. The next moment four different gaping holes had opened up in the ceiling, dropping 13 scorpions and a few dozen lizards down here with me.

 

Ducking beneath another curse beam I focus on keeping myself moving and killing as many lizards as possible while my ring blade cuts off their tails. They’re the deadliest things on this floor as getting hit by a single one might cause a chain reaction of blunders, eventually resulting in my death. There’s honestly a large risk of me dying here and the simulated adrenaline is coursing through me as I enjoy the thrill. It had been kind of boring in the dungeon until now and I hadn’t been in this much danger since I was swept away by the sea of fungi parasites in the Rhodolite Peaks. I’d missed this.

As my ring blade finishes cutting of four more tails and I’ve dismantled another dozen bone lizards I dash towards the closest diss-tailed scorpion, jumping up towards the ceiling above it before launching myself downwards and landing on top of it, transferring and amplifying all the force towards its insides with as much control as I’m able to muster in the battle trance.

I’m not as engrossed in the moment as I was when fighting off the thousands upon thousands of fungi but the danger and the adrenaline still push my focus to the limit as I strain to improve my killing speed, efficiency and techniques. Cracking the exoskeleton with another jump, barely avoiding getting hit yet again by the remaining 5 intact tails’ curse beams, I pull the pincer of the next scorpion aside as I pass it, kicking it to death before continuing.

 

My ring blade wizzes past me and cleaves another tail in half as I punch the next to last scorpion to death before immediately ducking under the pincers of the screeching and hissing scorpion I’d just dismembered. Grabbing both pincers with telekinesis and pulling them apart I kick it beneath the eyes, adding enough telekinetic force and pushing it deep into the flesh, actually removing the whole section of brain and eyes and coating the ceiling with the electric purple eyeballs.

Immediately turning around and executing a roundhouse kick I send two lizards to their deaths before rushing at the last four of them a few meters away, killing one with the ring blade and the other three with a punch to the neck, an elbow to the forehead and a knee to the chest, all executed with the last dredges of mana remaining to me as I nearly drain myself dry.

Looking around without actually turning my head as I switch focus of ten different sensors rapidly at the same time, my multitasking showing its true value, I take in my surroundings in under a second and conclude that I’ve actually killed every last monster in the chamber.

Feeling all the strength leaving me and my mind receding from the hyper focused battle trance I collapse on my ass, not even minding the uncomfortable bone shards beneath me. My ring blade returns to my back, giving a last fierce spin to clean itself before starting the idle rotation I always keep up when outside of combat.

“Damn, Ari. That sure was one fun fight. Don’t you agree?”

Ari chuckles.

“Sure was. Quite mentally draining with the constant need to plan and execute the next move instead of only reacting to the enemies' attacks but it’s good training. There won’t always be time to avoid an enemy attack and one should learn to anticipate their attacks instead, positioning oneself out of harm's way before they strike.”

Ari’s correct about that. These curse beams are almost instantaneous, giving barely any time to react and forcing me to predict their attacks instead.

 

Not feeling like standing up yet I disassemble the ring blade before carving up the 13 scorpions, pulling the cores out with telekinesis. When that’s done I finally get up from my ass and walk between each pincer, harvesting the venom sacks and placing them in storage.

The storage capacity is always increasing with the near constant usage of the arcane spatial ring but I’m actually filling it up far faster than it can level, getting close to not having any space left with all the monster parts and cores I’ve harvested up until now. I’ve actually completed the collection of the 10 stalks of farilograss and picked up 57 venom sacks, accidentally destroying three of them and ending up with an uneven number.

Now I’m only missing the Azelian Blood Caps but they’re supposedly only growing on floor 17 according to Maya. I wonder why that is? Maybe some special environment for that specific floor? I’ll probably see why that is as I reach that floor, no need to think about it now as there’s loot to be had. Smiling in anticipation I approach the bronze chest that had caused this much danger, seriously doubting but still hoping that whatever’s inside can justify the measures taken to protect it.

Slowly opening the chest to uncover its contents I stare down in confusion, slowly turning to disappointment before becoming a burning curiosity. I’d been disappointed by the large gold-plated, potion flask containing a crimson liquid, most likely a healing potion, as it’s probably useless to me but grown curious about the other object lying behind it.

It’s a small metallic cube with rounded edges, positively covered with runic inscriptions and I pick it up first and try identifying it, pleasantly surprised by actually getting an answer that explains its purpose.

 

 

[Crude Core Grader]

 

 

This has to be some sort of magical device for measuring the grade of monster cores. It being crude must mean there’s a limit to either its lifespan, ability or both. I couldn’t care less about limitations though as this is actually something useful.

“This is actually something useful, Ari. It’s a perfect reward for us.”

“Indeed. I had thought we might get another weapon or a piece of armor with a few coins but this is so much better. Try identifying the potion even though it’s probably useless to us, I’m curious.”

Doing as Ari says I pick up the large flask and identify it.

 

 

[Medium Healing Potion]

 

 

“Is this a good reward? The potions I saw in the alchemy shop in White Rock when waiting for my turn in were all lesser potions but I don’t know how much of a difference there is.”

“No idea, Zel. It’s quite a fancy flask if nothing else. We might be able to fill it with spirits or something if we don’t find a use for the potion.”

Putting the potion into storage I summon a scorpion core, pressing the core grader against it as I push mana into the device. It was apparently the correct way to use it as information flows into my mind, staying there only as long as I hold the core against the runic inscriptions covering the small cube.

 

 

[Scaled Hex Luridea (Core) - Grade 1]

 

 

“It can even tell the monster the core originated from? This is amazing! Now I can keep the cores of dangerous monsters as trophies, using the basic core grader to read which foe they came from without having to remember them all.”

“True. We won’t get to appreciate the exact level of the monster the core came from but the grade is an acceptable rating of difficulty I suppose, even though they can vary greatly in danger in the same grade.”

“Grade 0 is from unevolved monsters, Grade 1 from monsters with one evolution and Grade 2 from a monster with 2 evolutions, is that correct?”

“I think that’s how it works. This monster core is almost a Grade 2 as it had a level between 190-199.”

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It’s certainly an item I can make use of and I happily send both the magical device and core into storage before turning around and walking towards the still closed off corridor. I’m almost starting to fret that it won’t open but sigh in relief as it rumbles when I’m a few meters away, small rocks shaking loose and water drizzling from newly opened cracks as it grinds against the walls on its way up, adding a nice ambiance with the theatrics.

Walking through the small streams of water falling from the ceiling I make my way back towards the main path of the floor, sighing as I come upon already respawned plant monsters. Looks like I’ll have to clear the chamber ahead for a second time before I’m allowed into the guardian chamber.

 

---

Cutting down the last scorpion and harvesting the core and venom sacks I take the other corridor leading onwards out into an enormous chamber a hundred meters ahead. I let my ring blade fly through the corridor, carving up various plant monsters and bone lizards trying to hide in the darkness behind grass and bushes but failing instantly as my glowing eyes illuminate them all.

Reaching the end of the corridor I take in the floor guardian, standing poised and ready for battle. Not at all like the frenetic behavior displayed by its smaller kin. It’s at least twice as large as the previous scorpions, enormous pincers constantly dripping with venom in the front and six legs instead of four, giving it a greater resemblance to an actual scorpion.

It’s also covered in dark gray scales but some of them, especially at the tips of the appendages, fade into something resembling onyx. Its eight electric purple eyes spread over a wide area in the front flicker with differing intensities, reminding me of my own sensor skill when I switch focus between them. Maybe something like that is going on with this floor guardian as well?

The segmented tail ends in an onyx-scaled ball with a multitude of holes, violet light pulsating softly inside it. I don’t know if it's used for bludgeoning or something else but I’m having a hard time seeing how it would be able to fire curse beams at me with it, which I’m thankful for. Finally done analyzing my opponent, having the distinct feeling that I’m being studied in turn, I prepare myself mentally before identifying it.

 

 

[Unending Hex Luridea Warrior (Floor Guardian) - Level 210]

 

 

Seemingly taking my intrusive identification as the sign to start the battle, the guardian lifts its pincers into the air, shuddering as it lets out a hissing, warbling screech that’s loud enough to be painful before charging straight at me. I’m slightly taken aback by the sudden charge as the previous scorpions prefered shooting curse beams at range before approaching. I adapt quickly however and run towards the side, trying to gauge its fighting style.

I soon realize my mistake as the tail with the ball suddenly lights up with a violet radiance, shining from each hole as a dense fog spews out from it, quickly spreading through the whole chamber with the frenzied back and forward swings with the giant tail. This is not an opponent I can take my time studying, it has to die quickly or I’ll probably be the one to fall.

Kicking off from the floor and launching myself towards it I send the ring blade forwards at its tail with as much telekinetic mana as I dare put into it, piercing into the side of the swinging tail and carving a deep groove but not severing it. Not daring to climb on top of the monster in fear of being smashed by the giant tail I instead opt to tangle with the pincers.

I kick the left and punch the right pincer away as it reaches for me, caustic venom dripping from them and splattering on my exposed skin as they jerk away. As I’m about to smack the creature in the face a bout of dizziness hits me, the sea of cursed fog showing the beginnings of the nasty effects hidden within. Pushing through and landing the hit with my fist on the side of its face I amplify it with 5000 points of mana worth of telekinetic force.

I try pushing the telekinetic force deep into the creature's flesh, meeting a lot of resistance from the creature's natural resistance to my tactics. I’m still rewarded with a shriek of agony as it jerks to the side, scaled exoskeleton cracked and leaking innards, 3 of the eight eyes having burst like bubbles from the pressure. The dizziness is steadily increasing though and I’m starting to see double, then triple before Ari cuts the information stream from my eyes, silently urging me to rely on my sensors instead.

 

I gladly accept the suggestion, my previously rising nausea swiftly disappearing as I dodge the swipe of a pincer before standing up in preparation for another hit to the floor guardian's face, hoping to finish it. I have to quickly dodge again however as the scorpion arches its back, the enormous mass of the ball hanging from the tail descending towards me with insane speeds.

I don’t manage to get completely out of the way and my left foot becomes a smear at the bottom of the newly created crater as I’m flung away by the shockwave and debris. Cursing as I tumble on the floor I instead put my focus on the ring blade that had yet again missed the tail, moving it up towards the high ceiling before pulling it down in a speedy descent on the side missing 3 eyes.

The crunch of crumbling exoskeleton and scales is extremely satisfying and I groggily make my way towards the flailing and shuddering floor guardian on my regenerated foot, my sensors starting to notice the curse’s interference as well. I probably don’t have long before the curse becomes too much to realistically handle and I dash the last distance towards it, arriving two meters further down the side between the last and middle leg instead of its face where I’d aimed to be.

Not really caring, I pull my right fist back before throwing it in a straight punch at the monster's side, putting the momentum of my whole body into the punch and amplifying it with 10,000 mana worth of telekinetic force. Time seems to slow as I watch the ripple of power expand out with my guidance, pushing it deeper and extending the impacted mass far beyond what a normal punch could ever hope to achieve.

A split second later and it’s just gone, the innards and scales surrounding the affected area no more than a crimson mist in the air and fragments thundering into the stone wall on the other side of the chamber, actually piercing and getting stuck in the rock in some places. The separate pieces remaining relatively intact fly in all directions, spinning in blurs of motion and dislodging gore in all directions in imitation of my ring blade.

I get absolutely showered in blood and other viscera before a bone fragment pierces my left eye, nearly reaching my soulcore with its insane velocity before getting stuck at the spokes supporting the cranial structure.

 

 

Ding! You have slain [Unending Hex Luridea Warrior (Floor Guardian) - Level 210]. Experience withheld until current class has been evolved or a new class has been selected.

Ding! You have cleared the 14th floor of the Grizklesat dungeon.

 

 

“Fuck that was close!”

“Yup, we seriously need to build a better body or increase our physical attributes soon or else we might really die from a stray projectile of our own making. How embarrassing would that be?”

“We did it though, Ari. The fucker was a lot more dangerous than I’d assumed since we’ve fought creatures and people above level 210 before. I should have remembered that it had evolved a second time when I saw its level above 200 and figured out that it probably meant that it was a lot more dangerous than the lesser scorpions at level 190-199.”

“No worries, I didn’t think about that either.”

“We now know what the unending part of the name referred to, an unending stream of cursed fog slowly disorienting anything in the vicinity until they can’t even fight back. Such a cruel way to fight but surely effective against larger groups of opponents.”

Moving the ring blade back towards me I sit down in the gore before using telekinesis to pull out the shard of bone lodged in my skull, Ari immediately regenerating the damage. I keep the ring blade horizontal like a table as I lean forwards onto it, my vision and sensors still wobbling and distorting from the cursed fog. It hasn’t dissipated yet, showing the annoying ability to remain active for a time after the monster has already died.

A minute or so later the curse fog is finally gone and my bodily functions and senses restored to normal. Jumping to my feet I immediately start looking around for the core, spending a few minutes scraping innards around on the ground before finally finding it with my sensors and grabbing it with telekinesis.

Placing it in my hand I look happily at the slightly translucent gray crystalline material, swirls of foggy violet glowing dimly inside of it. Summoning my Core Grader I try using it.

 

 

[Unending Hex Luridea Warrior (Core) - Grade 2]

 

 

So it’s really called a grade 2? Good to have confirmation. I send them both into storage before looking around the messy guardian chamber, considering extracting the venom sacks as well before shaking my head and walking towards the stairwell. There’s really no need to harvest a larger version of the venom sacks as I won’t get paid more for their increased size as far as I know. They’ll only take up more space in my spatial ring.

Dispersing all my clothes and keeping the daggers held aloft with telekinesis I let Ari thoroughly scrub us down, enjoying pleasure from her extra attentive cleaning of certain areas before manifesting everything back on, styling my hair and walking through the stairwell double doors. I’d just cleared another floor and I feel like taking a break. There’s something to do before continuing our delve after all.

“Feeling ready to take a look at the available classes for our second class slot?”

“Definitely, Zel. We should check all notifications first though.”

Sitting down on an extra thick patch of moss under a flickering lantern and leaning my back against the wall I make myself comfortable in the tiny corner of tranquility provided by the stairwell. Feeling ready for taking the next steps on my path to power I let the cascade of notifications flood my mind.

 

 

Ding! You have slain [Constrictor Rootbound Vine - Level 181]. Less experience awarded.
…
Ding! You have slain [Unending Hex Luridea Warrior (Floor Guardian) - Level 210]. Experience withheld until current class has been evolved or a new class has been selected.

Ding! [Mana Machine v. 2.3] has leveled from [196] to [200]. +[40 AP].

Ding! General skill [Identify] has leveled from [57] to [60].

Ding! General skill [Aerial Acrobatics] has leveled from [80] to [84].

Ding! General skill [Running] has leveled from [119] to [122].

Ding! General skill [Sprinting] has leveled from [128] to [134].

Ding! General skill [Jumping] has leveled from [152] to [159].

Ding! General skill [Dodging] has leveled from [256] to [273].

Ding! General skill [Harvesting] has leveled from [16] to [21].

Ding! General skill [Unarmed] has leveled from [155] to [197].

Ding! General skill [Arcane Spatial Ring] has leveled from [138] to [153].

Ding! General skill [Basic Arcane Telekinesis] has leveled from [264] to [294].

Ding! Skill [Sensors] has leveled from [295] to [316].

Ding! Skill [Passive Power] has leveled from [548] to [562].

Ding! Skill [Arcane Manipulation] has leveled from [604] to [633].

Ding! Skill [Capacitor] has leveled from [366] to [380].

Ding! Skill [External Modules] has leveled from [258] to [279].

Ding! Skill [Power Profiler] has leveled from [103] to [118].

Ding! Resistance [Corrosion Magic Resistance] has increased from [14] to [16].

Ding! Resistance [Curse Magic Resistance] has increased from [76] to [107].

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