Chapter 184 - Reward And Punishment At The Same Time

[Level 28; Green Spear Spider; Elite Boss]

The spider's twenty eyes flashed open as soon as it sensed the new intruders. Its numerous eyeballs moved at the same time to fixate on Liam.

Ka ta Ka ta Ka ta Ka ta

The spider moved, the spears on its body acting as legs.

Liam grinned and his body as well blurred with a speed equivalent to that of the spider. The two of them darted back and forth in the huge cave clearing, neither losing their edge.

However, the spectators could clearly see that it was Liam who was setting the pace and orchestrating the whole dance.

"I have the aggro. Start attacking." Liam shouted. "Oh and make sure to first take care of the hatchlings as and when they arrive."

"Yes, leader." The demons collectively shouted and started attacking the huge spider. 

They wanted to finish the fight quickly before their anti-venom buff wore off but for some reason, their leader advised otherwise.

Unnecessarily worrying about the small insignificant hatchlings would only prolong the time and was an inefficient way to deal with this fight.

Even the brutish demons understood this but no one went against Liam's orders and attacked the spider with their axes and spears, stopping abruptly when the eggs hatched.

Numerous small spiderlings came out of these eggs and the demons focused on clearing these, only returning back to the boss afterward as per their orders.

"Good job. Continue this." Liam smiled and skillfully evaded the toxic venomous goops the spider was now tossing at him.

Fighting this way took a couple of seconds extra, but there was a reason he asked everyone to do this.

There was a special trick to this particular dungeon because of which he took the initiative to tank this spider while the others slowly whittled down the beast's health.

And when all the eggs were completely broken, the hatchlings taken care of, and the main boss almost down to its last drop of health, everyone else as well understood his actions.

Before the huge boss even went down completely, the ground shook and cracks started appearing.

"Move back. Now." Liam shouted and all the demons hurriedly ran back to the wall of the clearing.

The floor of the cave cracked open at the center and from underneath something grotesque and ugly surfaced. 

"HOW DARE YOU KILL ALL MY BABIES?"

An evil sinister voice rang loudly echoing from all corners of the cave as the full-body emerged from within the ground.

The monster skittering or rather rolling in front of them could hardly be called a spider. It looked as if three or four giant spider bodies were stuck together.

There were several spots on its silver body that emitted a putrid aura and if one looked closely, they would be able to tell that these spots were rather its eyes.

The demons couldn't help but shudder at this presence. Even Luna trembled, subconsciously moving closer to Liam.

But Liam had a big grin plastered on his face as this was the beast he had exactly been patiently waiting for.

"You are finally here."

[Level 30; Kalima; Super Boss]

This was the hidden boss of this dungeon and a terror to the players as its attributes, skills, everything was far greater than the level of the dungeon overall.

This was a Level 25 dungeon and players above Level 25 were not able to enter inside. 

So aside from the fact that it was a boss monster with an exaggerated attack, defense, and regeneration, its base stats themselves were far greater than the players could handle.

Even a raid team of 40 players couldn't tackle this gigantic beast. Everyone was wiped out in seconds because of its long-range AoE attacks and unblockable skitter crush attacks.

In fact, in Liam's previous life, this hidden dungeon boss had forever remained untouched, with no player or guild being able to defeat it.

But now, Liam had the wonderful opportunity to tackle this monstrosity and teach it a lesson it won't forget. 

Why? Because of some super-secret strategy?

No!

Because of the one and only simple reason that Liam's level and abilities far-outweighed the beast's level and abilities.

Normally, he wouldn't have been able to enter the dungeon at his level but due to the invasion portal loophole, they got directly teleported to the dungeon itself, crossing the barrier.

So, he was now in a position to bully this hidden dungeon's super boss who enjoyed terrorizing and bullying others.

Liam did not prolong the battle any longer as it was not necessary. He directly started attacking the monstrosity's weakness which was fire-type attacks.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

He sent out volleys of fireballs as he pushed the rest of his mana to increase his speed, taking the fight away from the others.

-2000

-2500

-2000

Giant damage numbers floated atop the beast and the stunned beast groaned in pain.

GRAAAAAA!!! HISSSSS!!!

Its eyes bulged even wider and it dashed towards Liam at top speed, wanting to directly smash against him and end his insignificant presence.

Ka ta Ka ta Ka ta

The monster rolled over like a racing avalanche but Liam already expected this move and used the cave wall and the monster's body to leap up.

He directly dived down, plunging his sword onto one of the monster's many bodies, and slashed across while dragging the sword in the depth of the body.

Greenish-black blood spurted out everywhere and without letting the beast react, he instantly swung around and materialized a huge ball of flames blinding it completely.

GRAAAA! GRAAAA! GRAAAAA!

The beast roared in pain and as it was preparing to unleash its most terrifying and disastrous attack, toxic lunch, Liam tossed all the fire mana he had gathered right into the injured part of the beast, triggering a hypercritical attack.

A loud explosive noise rang out and one of its bodies was blasted from inside out, damaging the other two adjacent bodies as well.

Liam had already exhausted his mana with this attack so he hurriedly slashed away at the remaining two-fifths of the health.

Each of his sword slashes was powerful and they cut through the hard exterior and meat of the grotesque spider monster with ease.

More blood spurted and the monster started deflating like a punctured balloon. Its balance and rhythm were completely disrupted and it keeled in submission.

Just like that, without the beast ever being able to get a single attack through, the fight ended in under three minutes.

[Ding. Congratulations. You have killed the Elite Boss Green Spear Spider. You have gained 10000 experience points]

[Ding. Congratulations. You have killed the Super Boss Kalima. You have gained 20000 experience points]

[Ding. Congratulations. You have cleared the Murderous Eyes Dungeon. You have gained 10000 experience points]

[Ding. Congratulations. You have cleared the Hidden Murderous Eyes Dungeon. You have gained 20000 experience points]

[Ding. Congratulations. You have obtained the first clear of the Murderous Eyes Dungeon; Reputation in the Marlow Kingdom increased by 500]

[Ding. Congratulations. You have obtained the first clear of the Hidden Murderous Eyes Dungeon; Reputation in the Marlow Kingdom increased by 1000]

[Ding. Congratulations. You are now a Knight in the Marlow Kingdom]

[Ding. Congratulations. You have leveled up]

[Ding. Congratulations. You are the first player to reach Level 40. Your achievement is marked in history. Reputation in all regions is increased by 100]

[Ding. Congratulations. Your pet Luna has leveled up]

[Ding. Congratulations. Your pet Luna has reached Level 25 and is ready to evolve]

Continuous luminescent glows flashed all around the group, including Liam. Everyone leveled up once, twice, and some even up to five times.

Even Liam was impressed by these insanely generous rewards. 

He did not expect the dungeon clear bonus rewards because they had technically not entered the dungeon through the normal route.

The five demons also looked ecstatic. They never knew that upgrading their levels could be so simple and easy. 

They all drooled at their improved attributes and exchanged gleeful looks with each other.

Liam as well tidied up his status menu and distributed all of his bonus stat points that he obtained from this level-up and the previous level-ups.

As if these bountiful rewards were not enough, several pieces of loot glittered on the ground, including a skill book and a recipe scroll.

Just as Liam was about to pick up and look at the haul unexpectedly, another couple of announcements rang out 

[DING. World Announcement: Congratulations to player Chang Liam for the first clear of the Hidden 'Murderous Eyes' dungeon. Party Members: Chang Liam]

Liam's movements paused, his gaze landing on the small last part of the announcement. 

There it was announced in bold letters to the whole wide world that he had single-handedly cleared a Level 25 dungeon. 

Moreover, his current level as well was visible to everyone.

How was it possible for a Level 40 player to enter a Level 25 dungeon? This was an obvious discrepancy.

Such a blatant flaw would arouse a lot of hatred from the other players, especially the major guilds.

Liam could only imagine the different sorts of trouble this would inevitably bring. He closed his eyes and sighed.

Unfortunately, everything that he was going to do from now on would bring even more attention to himself. 

This was the system's way of retaliating, preventing him from obtaining everything that was good and putting a big fat target on him. 

However, he had no other choice but to bear all of the consequences.

Just for this, if he slowed down now, then the future would only become even more miserable.