Chapter 75 - Crouching Tiger (3)

EARLIER INSIDE THE DUNGEON...

Arnold woke up by sudden noises around him, but he was not alarming because he had ordered his summons to be on guard as they didn't need to sleep. Thanks to them, he slept like a log... on a log. Even though he had taken care of most of the monsters who lived in the forest, one couldn't get careless because of it hence, this was his precaution.

When he opened his eyes, sun was already up and shining brightly and his summons were waiting for him to get up so that they could continue to search the area to find the potential, 'boss' of the dungeon.

Although sun was already above their heads, barely a couple of hours had been passed since Arnold went to sleep. His eyes were heavy but he couldn't afford to rest any longer. he sent his summons in every direction and told them to report any 'peculiar' sighting while he went to look for hidden artifacts that would be helpful for him.

After wandering for sometime he heard a loud explosion and simultaneously got a notification that he had never seen before.

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YOUR SUMMON(S) :

Duke has been destroyed by [DREADNOUGHT].

Hidden labyrinth found!

Additional quest activated!

QUESTS : Monstrosity.

• [ INTRODUCTION ] :

You have been informed about a hidden labyrinth. Kill [DREADNOUGHT], the guardian of the labyrinth to complete the trial and return to your realm.

[ TASK ] :

Kill the [DREADNOUGHT]

[ PROGRESS ] :

0/1 Kill

[ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] :

• 8000 EXP

• one random reward

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"What the hell just happened there?" Arnold mumbled as he looked towards direction were the clouds of dust rose up in the air, he should've been pissed that one of his elite summons was destroyed by a monster but instead, he felt excited. "It's been a long time since one of my elite summons got destroyed. Since Duke is at rank A right now, this [DREADNOUGHT] must at least be at A+ or S ranked monster... perfect to be converted into an elite summon."

Arnold rushed towards the direction where the sound of explosion came from. Since all of his summons, were connected to the him by the void, he quickly undid the summoning so that they could return to the void and he'd be able to call them out after he reached the labyrinth.

He kept running but there was no 'labyrinth' in his sights, just a burnt down forest. It was then he heard a scream that pierced his soul. He kept walking slowly and then he saw it - The Dreadnought. It was roughly the same height as the behemoths but it was clearly stronger than them. It had a gigantic club in one of his hands while his other hand was shaped like a claw of a crab. Without wasting anytime, Arnold quickly used the probe skill on the monstrosity, while he hid behind a cl.u.s.ter of burnt trees.

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CLASS : Leviathan (Astral being)

LEVEL : 101

RANK : S+

ROLE : The Guardian

AFFINITY/ABILITIES :

• Elemental shadow (active skill)

• Dance of the dead (active skill)

• Psychic Projection (active skill)

HP : 11570/11700

STRENGTH (STR) : 135

DEFENSE (DEF) : 78

STAMINA (STA) : 99

INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 68

AGILITY (AGI) : 71

ACCURACY (ACC) : 60

EVADE (EVD) : 68

CHARISMA (CHA) : --

Damage Resistances : Piercing, and Slashing from nonmagical attacks.

Condition Immunities : Charmed, Exhaustion, Frightened, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned, Prone, Stunned.

THREAT LEVEL : High

REMARK : Don't think that this fellow is a weakling like you. Just one hit by that gigantic club and you're gonna for good... or maybe it'll take two hits. Good thing is, that thing can't destroy me, unlike you. If you want to live then your only hope is to sever it's spinal cord but it won't be easy.

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"Sever it's spinal cord, have you even seen how gigantic that thing is?" Arnold mumbled, careful as to not let the dreadnought hear his voice, "Piercing and slashing won't work either meaning my summons wouldn't be able to do much against it. No wonder Duke got thrashed by it, I'll have to find some other way to deal with it."

Arnold read the information in front if his eyes again and again, until he found something useful - Dreadnought was an astral being.

"It'll be tough but I could work with that, at least my elemental attacks would work on it, but then again, it has a lot of immunities, passive effects from most of my abilities won't be effective against it... Why did it had to be such a tough opponent?"

The moment Arnold had stepped into the portal, he knew it wouldn't be easy to clear the dungeon but he had thought it would be doable with his summons to back him up. He would've never imagined that he'll encounter a monster who'll make most of his summons useless, as their primary weapons were swords and similar weapons, which could only slash and pierce their targets, but it wasn't possible to do so anymore. Still all hope wasn't lost, Arnold could always summon his sixth elite grade summon, but calling her out would've led to a different problem entirely.

"I'll think about it when I'll cross that bridge. Right now I need to focus on the blob in front of me." Arnold finally walked in front of the Dreadnought and called out his elite summons only, for two reasons. Firstly, since Duke was destroyed by the dreadnought, Arnold doubted that his usual summons would last even for a second in front of it, and secondly, he still needed some cannon fodder so that he would be able to focus on killing the Dreadnought.

Talos, Cerberus, Bad-Breath, and Asterios, walked out of the pitch black void and stood in front of Arnold, Duke couldn't be summoned at the moment due to the cooldown of two hours. Talos and Cerberus, who had the transformation ability, immediately changed into the forms that they were familiar with. Talos turned into Jake while Cerberus turned into his form, who was an astral being itself. While all of this was happening, the Dreadnought calmly stood there, as if wasn't even bothered by Arnold and the others.

"See that thing over there," Arnold pointed at the Dreadnought, "None of us stand a chance against it, at least not the way we are right now but we can always change that, can't we?"

The others quietly listened to his words.

"I haven't used this ability of mine for quite sometime because I never felt a need to, but this time we won't be able to pull this off without it." Arnold placed his hands in Talos' shoulders, "I really hope this skill hasn't gone rusty... ENHANCEMENT!"