Chapter 114 - First Come First Serve

[Slash]

A clean cut appeared on the minotaur's calf muscle and blood spurted out. 

If it was only Liam who had been moving, this would have never happened but he used the beast's own momentum and finally drew the first blood.

-200

What a low damage output! Liam sneered. He did not look disheartened. This much was in fact enough for him.

[Venom Burst] 

He immediately activated the next phase of his plan and downed a mana potion, before once again starting to focus completely on evading.

-50

-50

-50

Small dot damages started appearing on the minotaur and before long… the rampaging monster wobbled and lost most of its vigor.

"You! Tainted…"  The beast's words were cut short as Liam blasted one fire bullet after another, filling the cow-headed monster's body with a dozen bleeding bullet wounds.

And finally, after the last bit of health vanished, the minotaur fell down lifeless on the ground.

[Ding. Congratulations. You have killed the Elite Demonic Minotaur. You have gained 30000 experience points]

[Ding. Congratulations. You have leveled up]

[Ding. You have learned Basic Ice Manipulation Skill]

[Ding. You have learned Ice Blanket Skill]

[Ding. Your Ice Manipulation Skill is upgraded to intermediate]

[Ding. Your Ice element attacks are boosted by 5%]

Hovering over the list of notifications, Liam noticed that something was missing. "Eh? I didn't get any notifications for the lightning attack that I tried?"

"Did I not manipulate it well?"

He pondered about this for a bit as he needed this particular skill for crossing over to the next step. 

It was only possible to use [Venom Burst] in certain portions of the dungeon. If one wanted to use this single loophole for the entire dungeon, that would be a fool's dream.

"I guess then I will just have to practice some more." Liam did not even bother looking around for any drops as he collapsed next to the minotaur's dead body and closed his eyes.

He had only finished 3 or rather 2 of the 10 battles that stood in his path, considering that the first fight was rather left unfinished and the four toads were still croaking in the distance. 

But he was already completely exhausted. However, this was something Liam had expected. 

Though he had relied heavily on his rare [Venom Burst] skill, it was only possible to defeat the elites because of his own determination.

He had constantly evaded critical lethal attacks and ground down the health of the bosses from millions to 0.

The three fights had taken him seven hours altogether and maintaining one's top mental focus for that much time was nothing to scoff at.

So he was currently fully drained. 

Liam steadied his breathing and slowly recuperated inside the dark and dingy place. 

After a while, he even ended up taking a nap inside the dungeon which helped with his mental exhaustion.

"Ok. Time to start hunting again."

Liam immediately did not leave the place and started to look around the minotaur's body for drops. He once again found a couple of gold coins and this time he also saw a scythe.

"A rare grade equipment… not bad."

He picked up the scythe and as he examined it in his hand, he saw another thing sparkling from the corner of his eyes.

A golden insignia.

Liam quickly tossed the scythe into his inventory and then grabbed the insignia. "This should take care of some of my money problems. He He."

He placed the insignia into his inventory as well and kicked the minotaur around to see if any more drops were left behind.

Only then did he reluctantly leave.

Unfortunately, he had to leave this minotaur corpse as well behind as it was above his level and he didn't want to suffer more injuries by trying to revive dead monsters above his level.

So just like the two ogres, the minotaur was also unusable.

If he had been able to bring over a few undeads, the next fight would indeed be simpler, but because of the toads at the entrance and the strategy he had chosen to walk past them, this was next to impossible.

So for now, he had to fight without the help of any summons.

Liam walked past the wide passage which opened up into a vast forest. It was so big that one could easily get lost in it which was also one of the challenges of the dungeon.

There were different traps at different corners of this dungeon, but for someone who already knew the path too well, this was not an issue.

Liam gazed at the landscape in front of him and then turned to the northeast to start heading deeper when something on his side caught his eye.

"Is this…??? What the hell!" He strayed away from the main path and dashed to his right instead where a small bed of violet-colored plants was growing.

He bent down to pluck one of them and smelled.

[Ding. You obtained a stalk of purple tendril]

"I knew it!" 

The bed of violet plants was in fact herbs.

In fact, everywhere he looked around, there were herbs. Common herbs, rare herbs, precious herbs. There was lots and lots of everything.

They were spread out, growing in clusters, in patches, under trees, near bushes, across the vast forest.

It had always puzzled him that a supposed 'demon's abode' included such a huge forest as a back garden but now it made sense.

Was this whole place just a field for various herbs? If that was the case then those who entered first would have had the privilege of taking away all the herbs!

What a harvest!

Sucking in a big breath of air, Liam got down to business. He tried to stick to his 'safe' path while simultaneously collecting all the herbs that he could spot.

With this haul, leveling up alchemy skills was going to be as easy as eating a cake but he first needed to clear the dungeon and get out.