124: Dungeon (3)

Chapter 124: Dungeon (3)

—

"So… I thought there was going to be blood shredding?"

"Things don't always go according to plan."

Neji replied to Kimi's question as she watched the Orcs and Ogres playing with wolves, choosing a mount for themselves.

The Lord of the Wolves was shocked and hesitant when Neji proposed this idea in exchange for their lives, but in the end, he accepted it. Wolves were prideful, true, but they cared for their family too much to endanger them for pride.

There were around 60 wolves, amongst them around 20 or so were children. The remaining 40 all were fighters, so the 21 soldiers of Neji could easily choose their favourites.

The problem was, while the Orcs were small enough to ride the wolves, the Ogres were not. Most ogres were double the size of Neji, and only the Lord of the Wolf was big enough for them to ride on.

Less than half of Neji's army was Orcs, and the other part was Ogres. Meaning, amongst the 40 wolves that could be taken as mounts, not even 10 were picked.

"I guess the number would be 10 with you, Andrius." Neji spoke, patting the back of Andrius' head as he sat on top of him, and Kimi was just behind him too. "Two people isn't too much for you, right?"

"...I-it's fine." Andrius seemed to hold back a growl. "It's my honour to have become the mount of a high-human."

"Good puppy." Neji patted his head.

From behind, where Kurai was sitting on Kimi's shoulders, he heard a "hmph!".

Both Neji and Kimi laughed it off as Neji went along with his speech. "Now, since the mounts have been chosen, I think it's time for us to do the deed."

His initial plan was to destroy this wolves tribe and then hunt The White Tiger tomorrow, but since things ended swiftly and quickly here, and it's been only 4 hours since Neji's been here, he felt like he had enough time to challenge the Tiger.

With the dungeon time flowing 10 times faster than the outside world, he had more than 15 hours in here before going outside became necessary.

"Andrius, take us to the Save Stone room."

With a swift nod and very reluctant movements, Andrius leapt and went deep inside the cave.

—★—

The reason the monster factions keep Save Stones in their bases was because the Stones are a condensed form of sheer power. To the monster, if someone requires emergency mana recharge, they just have to softly touch the round blue ball and their mana pool will be filled to its brink.

This was why Andrius, the Dominator of Wolves was shocked when Neji went and shattered the white orb with a fist of Tremor coated punch. Causing a huge burst of harmless mana to pass through their body, giving them a soul-cleansing feeling, which even applied to Neji, and dissipated into the air.

Though it was just a 'feeling', nothing special actually occurred.

"B-but why?! A Save Stone can take months to reform!" Andrius shouted at Neji in confusion. "My faction is yours, so why damage yourself like this?!"  

Mursha stepped in front of the wolf. "You damn wolf, lower your tone." She spoke, revealing her teeth.

Mursha had levelled up a lot recently. Most were at the Cyclops hunt when Neji allowed everyone to go for the kill since it was looking like a losing match otherwise. However, even then, she was still only [Level 263] now, which was 21 levels below Andrius. Yet, she didn't look scared at all.

Andrius growled and Neji shook his head. "Mursha, stop causing trouble. Explain to him."

Mursha immediately nodded. "Yes, my liege."

A bit unpleasant, Mursha turned to the wolf and opened her mouth to explain the plan to him.

—★—

Neji flew away from the wolf cave after that. Using his Minimap, he quickly flew by air and went to the three monster villages he owned. They were being protected by rune magic circling around the area, so there weren't any monsters inside the empty residential area.

Neji first destroyed the Cyclops village Save Stone, then he destroyed the Ogre village one. At last, he dived deep inside the Lake where the Fishmen used to live to destroy the last remaining Save Stone.

It all took less than 10 minutes, and then swiftly by the air, he returned back to the wolf cave.

When he reached there, Andrius bowed.

"Si...Sire, are you sure about this?" He asked. "You might be a High Human, but I doubt you're as strong as the ones from myth, at least not yet. Or else I could have sensed some kind of profound depth around you. I don't think the White Tiger is an enemy you can defeat alone yet-"

"Alone?" Neji scoffed. "Who said I will be fighting alone? You're all my underlings, we will all attack it together."

"..." Andrius stared at him for a moment before humming. "I understand. Forgive my ignorance. It's just that, in the myths, High Humans were people who never liked to team up. They even hated teaming up with each other. But then again, you're not from their generation anyway."

Andrius nodded and showed his teeth. "Well then, this isn't a bad idea at all. It's been a few decades since the White Tiger was hunted last time. It was the Empress of the Great Empire who hunted it out of fancy. I was but a small cub back then, but I managed to observe a bit of that battle. So I think I can surely help."

Neji smiled. "Good, that's good. I thought you might step back because of fear of a stronger predator or whatever. But guess you do have a backbone, after all."

The wolf looked insulted at that, but it held back from growling and simply nodded.

"That was a joke, don't be so serious about it," Neji spoke, patting him on the neck and then turning to his people. "Anyway, I think it's time for us to move in. It'd be hard to move in this large pack, but luckily the beast's domain is closer from here."

Neji jumped on top of Andrius, looking down from there… and yelled, "Everyone, move!"

—★—

It took them an hour to reach the end of the Southern jungle. What they came across was an enormous grey colosseum. The gate of the fortress was huge, enough for a titan to walk inside with ease.

Neji and the group waited outside for a while, observing the situation and looking out for any anomalies.

Meanwhile, Mursha explained that the gate was supposed to be locked and sealed by indestructible magic spells, but because they had destroyed the Save Stones, the wide gate was now accessible to them.

"Anyhow, keep moving."

After waiting for a few minutes, Neji ordered his people to move forward. He, Kimi and Kurai rode Andrius, who was bigger than Mursha in height. 9 orcs rode smaller wolves, and the other ogres walked on their feet.

Slowly walking inside, at one point Neji reached the end of the road however he was surprised to see no seats present in the so-called Colosseum.

It was just a white and empty circular field with a small blue ball in the middle, placed on top of a platform. Beside the ball, however, a huge white cat sat majestically. 

It didn't look ethereal like Andrius, no… this one simply looked… dangerous.

White wings and large horns, the White Tiger sat on its four as it gazed on Neji's group, silently staring like an arrogant king.

Neji stared at the tiger, the White Tiger, which looked to be even bigger than two Andrius.

Nejj stopped at the gate that was far from the creature as Kurai spoke.

"Grr… Big cat, I don't like."

Both Neji and Kimi laughed at that, and shaking his head Neji started to evaluate the sight in front of him.

The field in front of him was bigger than a few football fields. So from this far, he couldn't see the beast's level. He needed to go closer, but, going closer would mean no coming back. So, if Neji were to indeed go, he needed to go prepared.

Neji opened his armoury and wore a sturdy armour. This wasn't as good as his hero suit, but this was the best he had on his hand right now. The Hero costumes are kept in school, so he couldn't bring them here as the teachers wouldn't allow it. So he was going to manage with this 

[Failed Knight’s Armour (Unique):

*+25% Attack Power

*+25% Lightning Resistance

*+25% Wind Resistance

*+50% END]

This one had fewer numbers of buffs than his Hero Costume, and also lacked an imbued skill, but the attack power and END were actually higher. 

Then, he equipped the new title that he got from the quest in Hosu. 

[White Knight in Shining Armour:

You're a hero, a Knight. For centuries, Knights have been the symbol of Heroism, the symbol of justice. This title boosts Attack Power up to 25% when wearing a Knight armour.]

Neji was wearing a Knight armour right now, and so he had 50% more attack power the moment he equipped the armour.

"Kimi, drop down and stay here. From the looks of it, the beast can't leave the field." Neji spoke as a green armour magically materialised around his body, causing Kimi to flinch and stumble down.

The White Tiger couldn't leave the field, Neji could guess why. The Four Great Beasts apparently don't act normal, they don't act intelligently despite being so strong--as Mursha put it. As if they were under some kind of mind-controlling spell.

'That's probably because they are NPCs while the other life forms present in this place are actually real.' Neji thought. 'Which would also explain why they turn into light particles when killed, while nobody else in this place does.'

Meaning, the four great beasts were created to be Neji's exp bags.

"Kimi," Neji slowly floated off Andrius' back, just as Kurai jumped on top of him while looking down on Kimi. "Turn around, the blood might bother you. That beast doesn't look like something that'd go easy on us."

Kimi slowly nodded, sighing under her breath in helplessness that she couldn't help despite having the power to. In fact, she was being helped by a kid half her age.

Neji gestured his hand at the monsters to move. Some of the wolves were shaking, feeling instinctive fear because of the stronger predator in front of them. But under Andrius' guidance, the wolves moved. So did the orcs and ogres, led by Neji in the air.

Kurai started to brew a spell, her [Death Breath]. Dark mana circled around her jaw, ready to be shot at a signal. 

“Fire!”

Neji yelled out just as Kurai shot the beam of darkness, death mana, at her enemy.

The white tiger, one moment was sitting on its fours, the next moment was rushing at Neji in the air after dodging the attack.

The tiger was huge, Neji realised as it came flying at him with its wings.

However, as huge as it was, it made an easy target. Mursha and Andrius moved below it, Murcia grabbed its long tail and yanked it downwards.

The Tiger’s body thumped down on the floor, just as Andirus went to slash his claws on the beast’s throat, which the tiger blocked.

The others entered the match soon, the dozens of wolves and monster girls dashed at the fallen tiger.

From the looks of it, the tiger was already dead because of the large group. But…

It was still one of the Four Great Beasts of this land.

The Tiger widened its jaws, but it didn’t do it towards the incoming enemies. It raised it towards the air, at the sky, as it released a roar.

“Kroaarrr!!”

The space shook, trembling like an earthquake, as the wolves shrieked in pure pain and agony.

Even Kurai reacted, groaning softly. 

This ‘crowd control’ skill only worked on beasts, so except for Neji and the Ogres, everyone else was somewhat affected by it.

The most affected ones were the wolves, the least affected ones were the ogres and Neji. Even Kimi was affected by it, which made Neji furious seeing her fall on her knees with a groan far from the battlefield.

Andrius was also affected by the shout, but not as much, just like Kurai. He simply stumbled, whilst most of his wolf subordinates had fallen unconscious.

Neji expected this. Of course, a beast-like this wasn’t going to be defeated by numbers. It was, after all, a [Level 415] beast.

That wouldn't stop Neji from curing Kimi after all.

So he took a deep breath and told Kurai, "Jump off, transform, and kill it with me."

Kurai jumped off his shoulders, transforming into her larger form, which still only reached the Tiger's legs.

Neji also dropped to the ground, knowing this was his time to kill this monster but he also knew that this would not be easy at all. From the Health Bar floating above the monster, it had lost only a grain of HP.

Neji shouted a cry, telling his people to kill the monster, before widening his mouth where a small golden ball formed.

The White Tiger and the Azure Dragon are known to be rivals, so it would be useful to use his Gold Dragon's battle techniques here.

He released a Gold Dragon's Breath, a pillar of golden shockwave which rushed and crushed into the Monster's ribs.

[4068 DMG!]

The monster groaned, stepping back, as it noticed Neji again. Seeing the pest who had attacked him at first, the tiger growled and rushed at Neji.

Or it tried, before Mursha slammed her thorny silver club, encircled by white lightning, on its head.

The tiger groaned and turned to her, whipping its tail on her abdomen, which hit like a spear and threw her off her feet.

Andrius took this chance to jump in the air and slam down on top of the tiger. The moment the pact happened, icy spikes slipped out of the ground and penetrated the tiger—or it tried because it simply broke upon its contact with the Tiger's fur that was harder than metal.

The wolf groaned as the tiger roared and bit on his neck, tearing flesh apart and throwing him on the far.

Five of the nine orcs were mages and using their magic, they took that opening to throw balls of fire, boulders of earth, slashes of wind. But the Tiger's single shout erased those attacks from existence.

The mages went back to brew spells, while the fighters attacked it head-on.

The Ogres with their huge body and weapons slammed and slashed at the mythical beast, causing it to finally use another one of its magical powers.

Neji watched the Tiger's muscles visibly clench and flex themselves and a moment later, a great voltage of electricity whiffed out of it, leaping at the enemies around it and immediately shocking them greatly.

Neji could see some of their HP bars falling less than 10% because of that single attack.

But that wasn't enough. After all, Mursha said the Tiger's speciality was its mind, compared to its other siblings.

It widened its mouth and screeched again, but this time nobody screamed… immediately.

Neji couldn’t understand what happened, but all of his people started to yell with their expressions distorted.

They started to swing their weapons in the air, even the Ogres did so.

In the far distance, Neji saw Kimi yelling with her hands around her ears as tears dripped down her eyes like a fountain.

Neji immediately understood what was happening when a system message flashed in front of him.

[The skill “Gamer’s Mind” has neglected the skill “Absolute Nightmare”]

Which was why Kurai was fine too.

Neji leapt back in the air in case a stray attack hit him, but Kurai didn’t.

Neji told her what to do via telepathy as the oversized black cat nodded and muttered a spell,

“<Mana Zone>”

Most of Kurai’s mana left her body in a breath, forming a blue dome around the huge arena. Neji received another system prompt.

[You’re inside a mana domain, and you’re classified as a companion, which is why all your attacks will gain 100% boost while the enemy will lose 100% defence]

Neji smiled at that and prepared a Gold Dragon’s Dance in the air while Kurai widened her mouth and fired an ocean of black flames, different from her Death Breath, at the enemy.

“<Hell Fire>!”

It was an ocean of destruction as it crashed into the Tiger at the same time as Neji’s golden vortex fell from the sky and consumed the tiger entirely.

However, neither of them stopped attacking. Neji brought his palms together and widened his facing fingers. From the gap of his fingers, blades of Tremor rushed at the mixture of gold and black, hitting something solid and getting groans as a response.

The barrage of attacks continued and from the corner of Neji’s eyes, he saw the screaming and randomly attacking people had calmed down and fallen to the floor. Meaning, his attacks were taking effect.

Unfortunately, from the looks of it, Kurai’s Mana Zone was about to vanish and so their attack power would lose half its potency because of that. So, Neji decided to be a bit more physical.

Stopping his tremor blades, Neji instead coated Tremor around his entire body, which made him look like he was inside a bubble wrap.

Neji then flipped in the air, rolling into a cannonball, and then crashed on the ground on top of the bloody tiger who was coming out of the golden vortex.

This was the first skill of Neji's second skill set, White Tiger: Meteorite Shower.

Neji’s cannonball body crashed on the tiger’s back, as its spine cracked and it thumped down on the floor. The tiger yelled, roaring. But Neji’s body simply bounded up once and slammed down again, then again, then again, and at one point because of the sheer speed, it looked as if dozens of cannonballs were showering on the tiger.

Kurai attacked next, with her Death Ray, which sunk into the tiger’s body and ate out its HP, which now stood below 10%.

Neji curled out on top of the tiger, grabbing its wings with his left hand and slicing them from their root with his tremor-covered right palm.

The tiger yelled again, but Neji didn’t stop. He coated his feet in tremor, and then stomped on top of the tiger’s skull, which cracked, and as he kept stomping downwards, the skull burst out.

[Ding! You have defeated an enemy more than 100 levels ahead of you!]

[All gained exp will be tripled!]

[You have gained 30 billi- Actually,] The mindless voice suddenly took a tone. [Master, mind if I lower the numbers a little? I mean, just the zeroes at the end for your human mind to understand the depth. Billion isn’t exactly a practical number for humans, am I right?]

Neji, huffing and sitting on his butt, took in the system’s words for a moment before he nodded. “Sure.”

[You have gained 30 thousand experience points!]

[You have gained 10 levels!]

[You have reached level 130!]

Neji’s body glowed softly and his huffing stopped immediately, his levels having regenerated all his lost stamina.

[You have defeated the boss monster of Floor-1, and are now eligible to enter Floor-2.]

[All the previous Save Stones have been fixed, and can be used again immediately.]

[Please collect the reward in front of you!]

Neji stood up from the dead body of the Floor Boss, as the tiger’s body slowly dissipated into light particles. It finally vanished in thin air, leaving dozens of items behind. Amongst them, Neji’s eye only caught two of them.

A glowing white orb with black stripes, which Observe showed to be a [Mythical Evolution Stone]. Beside it was a single silver stone shaped like a bean, named [Mind Stone].

Neji crouched down and picked up the one item he came here for, and one item that he… needed.

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