Chapter 37: 36. Hope and Despair

[Respawning is disabled!]

 

[Hosts can’t enter or exit the safe room anymore until the end of the tutorial]

 

[Estimated time for the creature to regain its full powers: 00:45:36

 

[The ambient mana is slowly returning to the [???????]…]

 

What the hell! Not only is respawning disabled, but the safe room is no longer an option for me to hide inside!

The mysterious creature that was floating in the air must’ve been very special for such conditions to be imposed, and I was genuinely curious about it.

I had to squint my eyes and concentrate to see the silhouette of whatever was above me, as it was too far for me to take a good look at. I estimated the distance between us to be around fifty meters, and the darkness of the sky didn’t help.

I assumed that this ‘thing’ was a new boss that I had to fight, but this wasn’t what should’ve happened according to the memories of my past life. I was concerned with the third system screen too, as it indicated that this boss was somewhat weakened.

Thus, my chances of winning will be higher if I attacked it sooner.

I still didn’t see the creature fully and waited for it to get closer before I examined it. I could only tell that it was huge due to its large shadow and that it had many wings.

Slowly, it got closer to the ground as its wings flapped, and its image became much clearer.

It was terrifying.

Its features weren’t ugly, and it didn’t have exaggerated weapons or anything of that sort, but it had a scary aura around it. Something that words couldn’t describe, as if it belonged to a different world from mine.

It had a bipedal figure, and it was at least twenty meters tall from head to feet. It had black scales all over its body, and it had sharp claws on its hands and feet; just like a dragon. The color of the creature’s torso was the deepest shade of black that I’ve ever seen, and it was just like what I imagined a black hole’s color to be like.

On the center of the monster’s chest was a huge turquoise gem, and it was flashing brightly.

A long tail was attached to its body, it was sharp and pointy, but its color was paler than the main body’s. The monster’s head was similar to a dragon’s; it had two silver eyes with vertical slit irises, and it had a long jaw with small horns around it.

Two pointy large horns extended from the rear of the creature’s head, and each of them was twice as long as the head itself. They were completely white and contrasted well with the rest of the body.

On its back were three pairs of wings, and they flapped synchronically. Each wing was as large as the creature itself, and they had the same color as the main body.

I knew of a creature that had a similar description to the one that I was seeing in front of me, except for some minute differences.

A Bahamut.

It was twenty meters away from me, and I could easily examine it at this range.

[???????] (Epic)

Level: ???

Well, that’s a lot of information to digest, isn’t it? At least this is the first Epic monster that I’ve met face to face.

I was disappointed with the lack of information, but I had another card to play. I opened the shop window and asked for detailed information on the last creature that I examined.

Suddenly, the shop window closed on its own, and another system window appeared instead.

[System Admin]:

This isn’t the time for you to look for information. You’re most likely fucked at this point.

This admin bastard is being so helpful all of a sudden!

I sighed and closed all the system screens in front of me. I had little to no information about my enemy, except that it was a hidden boss of the tutorial with an Epic grade.

Epic-grade creatures didn’t start appearing in my past life until after three years after the system integration, and they were the hardest things that adventurers had to face at that point.

There weren’t any rumors about hidden bosses that circulated in my past life, so I had some theories about the matter. Either I was unbelievably strong on my own, and thus unlocked some hidden boss.

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However, the chances for that were slim, as there was another maniac that cleared the tutorial solo and I don’t remember hearing him talk about anything like this.

The second theory was that the people who changed my opponent in the second phase had something else up their sleeves to make my life harder.

Yeah, my intuition tells me that the second theory is correct. I’ll murder these assholes when I find them one day.

The creature was still moving slowly, and it scanned its surroundings rapidly. I felt the ambient mana moving toward it, but I had no mana manipulation skills to be able to tell what was truly happening to the resources that the Bahamut was pulling.

I guessed that it was attracting mana to replenish its reserves, and that was coherent with what the system screens said.

This creature will get stronger the more it pulls mana, and I have to test my powers against it sooner than later.

I looked around for a shadow, and I found a suitable one under a large tree that was completely charred. I hid under it and I used [Shadow Assimilation] to mask my presence. I had some suspicions about my opponent having a skill that uncovered stealth, but I used it just in case.

I raised my finger toward the creature and pointed it carefully towards the giant crystal on its chest.

“[Burn that Invader!]” I shouted as softly as I could, and I couldn’t stop myself from cursing because of the weird restriction that my class had. I decided to use the basic temperature of six hundred Kelvin for the attack, as my goal wasn’t to cause damage to the creature and I didn’t want to waste too much mana on an experiment.

I wanted to test the efficiency of one of my flames’ properties against a monster of this caliber; their capacity to siphon mana from the target. My flames could use the target mana reserves as fuel, and I planned of taking advantage of that.

The attack struck the target, and I was elated to see the creature catching fire. The flames were spreading slowly across the Bahamut’s body, but they were still effective.

The Bahamut opened its eyes widely when the beam touched its body, and it started slapping the area that caught fire with great force. The smacks made loud noises, and I could only imagine the pain that I would feel if I was hit by them. Still, it didn’t look in my general direction.

My stealth is effective against this creature!

Suddenly, the monster let out a strong roar, and the ambient mana started surging faster towards it.

Oh shit. It’s increasing the rate of mana absorption to negate the effects of my flames!

I was startled by this ability, and I was interested in knowing whether it had any limits. I left my bag of holding under the tree and left most of my belongings in it except for the equipment that I actively used.

I decided to make full use of my offensive items, as this fight might’ve been the biggest opportunity that I would ever get.

I’ll get great rewards for winning against this boss, and I’ll die for good if this monster kills me.

I always had the option of running away, and [Zoom] was already available to use in case of trouble.

I turned off my [Shadow Assimilation] skill and started walking slowly toward the creature. It still hadn’t noticed me, as it was too busy trying to extinguish the flames.

“[It’s fine!]” I shouted, and the creature took a look at me. I grinned and set my body on fire. The temperature of the flames was about six thousand and seven hundred Kelvin, as it was the highest that I could tolerate without feeling a strong urge to pass out.

I doubt I can keep it going for than a couple of seconds, but I’ll do what I can in that time frame.

I jumped as hard as I could and somersaulted into a flying drop kick. Both of my legs were pointing towards the Bahamut’s back, and I estimated my current velocity to be supersonic at the very least.

I am essentially a human ballistic missile. I hope this attack strikes true!

The creature didn’t even try to avoid me, and I managed to hit it accurately. I felt a jolt of pain throughout my whole body, and I heard a couple of cracking noises. The pain that I felt from the flames was too much at this point, so I decreased the temperature to a bearable level.

I think I fracture my tibia, but I am pretty sure I managed to wound the motherfucker.

The scales on the monster’s back were cracked in many spots, and some of them fell from their original positions. One of the wings was completely destroyed, and the rest of the creature’s back caught fire too.

“Ouch,” a coarse voice uttered this word, and it wasn’t me. I looked around, but the direction of the voice meant that the speaker was in front of me.

It can’t be, can it?

Suddenly, the Boss turned around with such a speed that I wasn’t able to follow him at all. He grabbed me with his right hand and looked me straight in the eye as his face was a perfect display of anger, at least depending on humans’ standards.

The Bahamut grunted, then he put me on the ground in front of him.

“I presume you’re ‘Jason Stubbs’,” he spoke with the same coarse voice from earlier, and his mouth moved as the words left it, “that attack was a nasty one, it truly hurt.”

My heart started beating faster, and my hands started shaking. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, but I had a bad feeling about my opponent knowing about my identity.

I tried to run away from the scene, but the creature spoke once more.

“Let’s act like the sapient creatures that we are,” he said as he sat on the ground “How about we have a little chat?”

 

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