279 Chapter 225: Canyon Dungeon Part 27

The head of the snake still had its eyes wide open as it glared dangerously towards Tank. Joshua had landed right between the massive turtle and the snake head that was still staring straight towards them. "Killed by filthy humans and a traitor to our kind! I won't accept this!" The boss shouted through what was left of its aura. Joshua could feel that the snake's power was draining away quickly as its life began to fade away.

"You are too arrogant. You act as if you have reached the highest peak of strength even though you aren't even close to being the strongest of your own species." Tank said back calmly as he continued to stare down at the creature's head. "I have met snakes large enough to swallow a creature of my current size whole. I have met snakes that are constrictors such as yourself that could crack open my shell with one simple squeeze. In the end you simply overestimate your own strength."

"It doesn't matter. In the future I will escape this place and become strong enough to swallow you all whole. I'll enjoy myself to my heart's content when that time arrives. The rest of the humans that dare to travel through this dungeon won't be as lucky as you." The snake sneered before its head lunged towards Joshua with its last ounce of strength trying to clamp its fangs down on him. Joshua instantly used his aura shield ability since it had come off of cool down at this point blocking the creature's final attempt to kill one of them. Its fangs couldn't pierce through Joshua's shield as the acid from Madalyn that was still burning the insides of its mouth simply slid off of it.

He noticed the rest of the group seemed excited by the fact that they were leveling up as well and Joshua knew they were as strong as they were going to get before taking on the last part of the dungeon. Through his time in the canyon and in the dungeon Joshua was able to gain five levels. It was an enormous amount, but that was to be expected when he contributed so much to the group while taking on monsters that were of a far higher level than himself. Jayce's group actually gained more levels than Joshua since they had all gained six levels at this point and were on the verge of gaining seven. They would still be two tiers below the final boss, but they would have time to adjust to the pressure since Joshua would be taking front stage in the fight at the start.

Out of all of the bosses they had taken down so far the snake boss had definitely been the most satisfying for the group. When it came to the first two boss fights it felt kind of unique with the way the bosses used their environments to their advantage and all, but it still felt like taking on a regular old boss that was easy for the tanks to taunt and distract if need be. When it came to the goat boss things became a bit more interesting, but it was more because of the gimmick of the fight than the fight itself. The Spider boss was the first time any of them had faced such an intelligent creature which made things more difficult, but in the end it felt more like an extremely difficult spar than a life or death boss fight.

In the end the snake boss had been the most satisfying simply because of how great it felt to take such an arrogant and brutal opponent down. The fact that the snake's large body was still left behind for them to take for themselves was also a massive bonus. The snake's body was enormous which meant a lot of materials for them to use. Joshua was especially interested in the snake's scales since they were so difficult to cut through and yet at the same time were so flexible. It would be the perfect material to make his next set of light weight armor out of since it wouldn't be too heavy in comparison to the armor most tanks used while still being great defensively. With some magic resistance enchantments placed on it, the snake scale armor would be the perfect armor for Joshua at the moment.

Between the enormous beetle carcass from the first boss and the giant snake carcass they would have plenty of material to make some good armor before they take on the large town. They would need all of the advantages they could get before taking on such a task and Joshua was looking forward to figuring out what the blue prints had to offer as well. Joshua put the large snake away into his inventory and he noticed that Madalyn seemed a bit disappointed after inspecting the snake's fangs. Apparently it didn't use any sort of poison and that seemed to bring her mood down a bit. Joshua wasn't all that surprised since the snake seemed to pride itself in being a constrictor type in the first place.

"Well I'm glad that bastard is done for. I feel sorry for the next group that's going to have to deal with its attitude." Adrian said with a frown.

"The next group will probably be us since I doubt any other groups in our guild will be able to handle this dungeon so soon." Abigail said with a frown before she smiled and turned to look towards Adrian. "So I guess you should feel sorry for yourself."

"Crap." Adrian simply said before letting out a sigh as most of the group chuckled at his antics.

"If we do end up facing the snake again in the future at least will be stronger than we are now when we do." Henry muttered just loud enough for the others to hear. "It is an intelligent creature and I highly doubt it will forget the group that killed it before. It's even more unlikely that it will forgive us."

"True." Joshua said while rotating his stiff arm to get the soreness out of it from having to bear the brunt of the force from several attacks from the snake. "It is smart and thus should be treated as though it will remember everything that happened this time around. I highly doubt that when we meet again the snake will be pleased to see us. It might just lose its teasing personality next time and that will make the fight even more difficult." The group realized throughout the entire fight the snake had been looking at them as nothing more than food. Even when it was slightly injured early on it kept up its playful attitude until it came face to face with Tank near the end. That's when it started getting serious and by then it was too late.

"Well we'll have plenty of time to come up with new strategies before we face that creature again. Besides by that point we should all be much stronger. Especially if the reward we get from clearing this dungeon is worthwhile in the end." Laura said as she turned to look around the room as the area seemed to brighten up after they removed the snake's body. It became clear how large the room was now with the pillars reaching up near the ceiling. The snake had plenty of room to maneuver its body around the group easily in the darkness and it didn't even use that advantage all that much due to its arrogance.

"There's the teleportation glyph. Oh and it looks like another treasure chest as well." Henry pointed out as the group made their way over. The glyph was similar to all the other ones they had come across and they were used to using them by this point. Joshua of course walked over to the treasure chest nearby and got another royal blue print that would come in handy once they got back to the hub city. Joshua was starting to feel that all of the blue prints would have something to do with the bosses they took down in the end. If that were the case he was looking forward to figuring out what advantages the group could gain from such high level equipment.

After getting the blue print the group made their way into the teleportation glyph. The symbols around them started to light up once more as they were surrounded in a blinding light. Soon they found themselves back in the central part of the dungeon where they could choose which path they were going to take. At this point every single path outside of the final boss room had been cleared and that could be seen by how all the doors were opened. The only door that was still closed was the large one straight ahead of them. The enormous door started to light up as all the pathways that had been held back do to the locks had now been cleared. They could see that the door no longer had anything blocking them from opening it and they knew that if they wanted to they could go straight ahead into the final boss room. Even so they made the wise choice and decided it would be better for the group to get some rest beforehand.

The spider boss had considered the final boss of the dungeon an abomination which was a telling sign coming from a creature that brought nightmares to several people around the world. Although the snake didn't say much of anything about the final boss Joshua got the feeling that it probably considered it an abomination as well since it seemed to want to avoid discussing the creature at all. The entire fight the snake acted all high and mighty, but there was never a point where the snake acted like it was the strongest beast in the dungeon. For such an arrogant creature to not boast about its superiority over another boss that beast would have to be powerful.

The final boss would be something to look forward to and Joshua could see the excitement in the eyes of just about everyone in the group. Amy seemed as if she wanted to rush straight through the giant doors right now, but she didn't let her excitement cause problems for others as she settled down and started helping out with setting up camp. Joshua kept his eyes on the massive doors while everyone else was busy setting up camp. For the moment he couldn't sense any power beyond the large doors which was surprising considering he was expecting the boss to be just beyond them. He was hoping they wouldn't have to go down another long path to reach the boss this time around since he was already past the level seventy threshold that he had been hoping for earlier. Anymore unnecessary fights would just slow down their progress which would be graded at the end by the system like with every other dungeon. It would also waste their supplies which they were starting to run thin on in some regards.

Joshua stared at the door for a while longer before he turned back to the group to help set things up for the night. Even though he tried not to show it, he was also excited for the next day to come.