Chương 31: Interlude 2

Supreme Warlady Elena Burnstock Dawnbreaker Destruction! I didn't say the name of my Tier 6 skill aloud. There was no need. The massive chamber, filled with streams of glimmering water and floating rock cubes, was lit up as my blade, Sarah, named after my older sister, swung out. The champion monster here on the 25 th layer was a high-level variant of a Shadow Soul Reaper. Annoying, but I knew I could do this. My Squires were holding off the other monsters that were trying to swarm our position.

They just needed to hold on for one minute so I could win this fight. I used the recoil of my swing to land on a floating rock cube, which shattered under my armored boots. The chunks flew off into the darkness of this part of the layer, leaving behind floating streams of glimmering water, like stars up in the night sky. I kept controlling my tier 6 attack to keep pressure on the champion monster. The wave of magical white flames was all-consuming, consuming Mana itself.

Except for high-level monsters and the dungeon, it cut through anything. The high-level variant of a Shadow Soul Reaper moved so fast. Even for me, it wasn't easy to make out its movements. It was a level 250 monster after all, far above my level of 159. Many would say that a 100-level gap was impossible, and they would mostly be correct, but I had confidence I could win this fight, since I had forced the monster to block my skill, pinning it in place, not allowing it to dodge.

That was the power of Dawnbreaker Destruction, forcing a high-level monster to shield from the nearly uncontrollable white flames no matter what they might try to do to avoid the attack. Kicking off the stone block, which shattered under the force, I sailed through the air. The monster's scythe was a parody of a true farmer's tool, as it created a Mana void to resist my tier 6 skill.

'Hang in there, Sarah, you were always the best,' I mentally said to my sword and my long-dead sister. It was time to push things to the limit. Mana Surge! One Blink! Hyper Slash x5! I activated the first two skills to slow down time for a single moment. Nothing else moved. Not the water of this environment, not the monsters, not even the Mana in the air. The stress on my body was immense, but it would hold.

Even as I felt my blood boil inside my body, I cut off my Tier 6 skill and swung Sarah five times in rapid succession, unleashing a sword formation. Many people believed I had a hidden master or backer. They were all fools and idiots, in fact, thinking it was an actual person. My tutor had been far more uncaring and brutal. Suffering no failures, no hesitation, no mistakes. Even now, I kept my intense focus on everything around me, observing and learning.

My only teachers were the dungeon and the monsters that dwelled within. I never truly learned the systematic way in a classroom or through any standardized instruction. My teacher was the very enemy I sought to overcome and destroy, to avenge my family. Later, I acquired some basic skills and spells, but I developed the true core of my profession and combat build. My Tier 6 class reflected such accomplishments.

The sword formation trick was something I learned near the end of my first legendary descent from a monster on the 24 th layer. It had almost killed me, but I had endured the previous time. The Hyper Slashes merged into a specific symbol that had the meaning of locking one in place. Enduring that assault while trapped had been one of the closest moments I had come to dying. Now, this champion monster would experience what I felt, but I wasn't about to let up.

Even with my Mana rapidly decreasing, my body on the verge of exploding, that was nothing to be concerned about. I was Elena, the Farmer of Monsters. They had reaped my family, now I would reap them. That was the title I held for myself inside of my heart, next to my precious memories of my long-dead family and my son. I didn't like shouting out my skills, but I needed to push through and go beyond what was possible if I was going to win this battle without incurring heavy losses.

My foot slammed down onto another floating block, and I flew backward behind my sword formation, directly at the monster, the air distorting from my speed. I only used my Mana to provide the barest of cushions around my body and armor, but I couldn't divert my focus too much." SLICE!" My favorite tier 3 skill. I had never upgraded it, even after it had reached Mastery. I didn't need any fancy nonsense for my ultimate killing strike.

My tier 6 skill was flashy and insanely strong, but in the end, a sword sliced things apart. To harvest the lives of monsters and enemies. I shouted the skill to let the dungeon know I was coming for it. To avenge my family, which the monsters it had released into the world had killed. If the dungeon didn't have a fear resistance skill, I would give it one, the same with all the monsters down here. There was a reason I didn't take my son into the dungeon.

All the low-level monsters fled from my presence in the upper layers, disappearing into whatever hell had summoned them. The high-level variant of a Shadow Soul Reaper brought its scythe around, despite being locked in place. It blocked my tier 3 attack. But that wasn't surprising, for combat was a battle of wits. One move setting up the next, that was the way to kill these stupidly powerful monsters and the way they sometimes tried to kill me. The other way was to unleash some nonsense skill the dungeon gave them.

Something I would not allow to happen if I could prevent it. That was why I had ended my previous descent at this layer. I knew what would happen, and I was mentally prepared for any nonsense it could unleash. It was an indigo-core monster, which meant it was a step up from the previous monsters. Sarah hummed as I vibrated my blade using a tier 4 support skill. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Just as my attack was about to cut through the monster and its weapon, the monster disappeared. While I had been wary since it was my first time fighting such a high-level monster of this variation, I was ready for something like this. I tracked its position, pushing my Perception stat to the limit. I had gotten the support skill, Spatial Sense, and had been relentlessly training it during the years I had been watching over my son. Lots of high-level monsters liked to use quick and tricky spatial skills.

For one day, I would descend once more, never to return. To go to the bottom of the dungeon or die trying. If I failed, my son would carry on with my legacy, hopefully reaching heights I couldn't or the depths of the dungeon. While I initially doubted the value of systematic learning, it would provide him with a firm foundation before I taught him personally. The monster reappeared behind me, swinging its stupid weapon towards my head. The weapon wasn't truly dangerous, but the skill it was using with its weapon.

It was the concentrated orb of black Mana on the front that would be instantly lethal, even for me. I was ready. Sarah, my trusted blade and sister, deflected the monster's blade and skill. I then channeled Mana through my weapon. A bright flash and powerful Mana-stunning effect was then unleashed from my weapon. I never ended my Slice skill. My blade cut through the robe of the Shadow Soul Reaper, burning away its Mana structure and killing the champion-level monster.

Its indigo core, pulsing with Mana, appeared in the air, and I snatched it instantly, putting it away in my spatial storage. That took just over half a minute. I was glad to see that my combat abilities hadn't atrophied during my absence from the dungeon. Raising my son had let some dullness accumulate, but my descent had shaken that off, and I had improved once more.

I let my skills deactivate as I pulled out a potion to help stabilize my body, counteracting the damaging Mana as my healing points spiked upwards as I drifted through the air, lightly touching down on a floating rock cube. Activating too many skills at the same time led to Mana rampage. I did not like using such things, but my Squires were struggling quite a bit. Their deaths should be prevented. After drinking the potion, I punted the hovering stone cube and flew. I felt Sarah firmly in my hand.

I barely felt the heavy armor I wore for general protection, but it would do nothing against a direct attack. That skill would soon cap out. I would have to think about whether I wanted to upgrade to something even more durable and resilient. Hyper Blade. Hyper Blade. Hyper Blade. I killed each monster that was entangled with my Squires, giving them each a few seconds of breathing room and restoring their confidence that we would win.

While I didn't like teams or other people, having Squires to keep the pressure off while dealing with the champion monster made things much easier. Perhaps when I made my final descent, I would find some like-minded people, and we could each fight on our own but in the same general area of the dungeon. I had already begun asking, time would see if the others were interested. Having competent teammates would significantly ease the pressure.

Going deep was annoying because to kill the monsters easily, active skills were needed. Hyper Blade. A flying slash cut through another Shadow Stalker. Annoying monsters that blended in with the darkness of this environmental section of this layer were swarming our position. Even with my sensory skills, it was a bit of a struggle to make anything out. That was when I first sensed danger. There was something off. An Abnormal was somewhere nearby. The chance of running into one increased as one descended the dungeon.

Monsters that broke away from the regular leveling pattern of monsters on that layer and champions.

"Abnormal!" I shouted out while my Squires continued to fight the remaining seventy Shadow Stalkers. I landed on a floating cube and closed my eyes, forcing my Perception stat to support specific skills. There, it was trying to hide with some spatial manipulation. Annoying, but I knew the perfect way to deal with such a thing. Kicking off the floating cube, I flew towards the Abnormal. I activated several support skills. Sarah began to glow and vibrate.

Mana bent around the blade itself in structured patterns, with the faint glimmering of symbols shining slightly brighter than the blade formed in the air around it." SLICE!" Anyone could kill anything with enough Mana. I would get low with my reserves, but it was fine to deal with this Abnormal. Annoying and dangerous, it was best to kill them quickly. The monster appeared, swirling mass of hooked tentacles with eyes and suckers, a variation of a Tentacle Horror, but clearly much higher level.

A shimmering spherical white shield snapped into place just before Sarah would have cut through the monster. My blade hung there for a single moment, and the shield bent inwards slightly because of the power behind it. It was a powerful defensive skill spell as I observed its Mana flow. That was something I would have to work on figuring out after leaving this layer of the dungeon.

Tentacles snapped forward, their barbed hooks digging into my heavy plate armor and catching me out of position after my blade rebounded. That would be annoying and costly to fix. The alloy used to make my Tier 5 armor wasn't cheap or easy to obtain. Aura of Repulsion! A wave of powerful Mana exploded from my body, pushing the tentacles away for a single moment. Grappling monsters had a key weakness, they grappled me. My blade swung upwards, slicing through several of the tentacles. Nothing could stop Sarah.

Black corrosive blood went flying all over me as I kept swinging, never slowing down. If you wanted to fight to the death, then let's fight to the death, monster. The ones with weapons were far more annoying than something with barbed tentacles. I wasn't worried about getting hurt, even as my armor became pockmarked and the few exposed portions of my body began to liquefy and drip away as the black monster blood washed over, giving me a dungeon baptism. Pain and suffering were old friends.

This Abnormal wasn't as strong as the Champion, but it was annoying as it regenerated quickly and kept trying to wrap me up in more tentacles. It was probably a blue-core monster, which was disappointing. Another indigo core would have been useful. I no longer cared about levels as much. It was simpler and easier to think in terms of monster core color. I would leave number counting to others, while I focused on killing.

It would just be a small drop of experience I needed to reach my next level, but I didn't keep track of such things, blocking out the experience counter in my status. Levels were no longer critical, but skills and skill combinations were the deciding factor in fights. That was why I wanted my son to have a stronger foundation, so he could go beyond what his old mother could do. Well, not that old, not yet. Fire Slash. Fire was best against regenerating monsters. Its putrid flesh burned.

Its black blood boiled into acidic steam. Fire Slash. I used my skill again to end this fight. I finally slew the Abnormal, leaving behind a charred and chopped-up corpse. I swung Sarah two more times, separating the inner portion of the monster apart and blowing away the blood and acidic steam from around me. My tier 4 immunity skill would have improved, since this monster managed to break it, a welcome benefit.

A blue core, useful and valuable for paying Alchemist Footworth to make a Mega Elixir, but nowhere near the immense value of an indigo monster core. Looking back at my Squires, they had defeated the remaining Shadow Stalkers. Good, they weren't completely useless. Glancing in the distance, I could make out the portal through the raging veils of energy to the 26 th layer of the dungeon. Another time, perhaps. For now, it was time to go back to the Last Bastion and then home to see my beloved son.

I had messed things up for him, but if he were like me, it would only push him towards greatness. With a thought, I opened my status to check my skill levels. I had gained an actual level, unfortunately, with no new stats. I was now 160. The 10 free stat points were acceptable, but just a small drop against my total stat count. That was when something interesting caught my eye. Something I had never seen or heard of before was on my list of tier 3 skills. Slice(101) A tier 3 skill had gone above level 100.

That shouldn't be possible. However, I had decided not to elevate my favorite skill to a higher tier. How interesting and something to think about. Sometimes, simple was better. It didn't feel any different to me, either in my mind or my senses. I swung my blade once. Slice. There was something that wasn't there before. Some of my other skills had become part of Slice on their own, naturally increasing its power, like my vibration and flame skills. I smiled slightly, another tool to defeat the dungeon.

"Let us return," I declared loudly to my Squires. Perhaps other people had discovered such a thing before me, but they never shared it. It wouldn't surprise me, since the other legends were mainly bastards or pigs.