Chapter 64: Going all out

This place continues to get crazier and crazier.

The deeper I go the stronger the monsters become. I don't think that I've even reached the bottom yet and I've already seen several monsters above level 300 and even one at 364. And right now I'm fighting a group of monsters all around level 230, normally defeating even a single monster like that would be enough to become famous, but in this place, you can easily end up fighting four or five at the same time...

They look like floating skulls surrounded by a field of visible mana, half of them are red and use fire magic while the other half are black and use darkness. The latter are the ones that are making this rather easy, not only do their spells not work at all against me, I've even been able to take their mana to replenish my own.

'Shadow lance'

'Shadow lance'

'Shadow lance'

After a few spells I'm able to take them down, and then I see the marks that they made when they hit the walls.

"As I thought, the rocks continue to get tougher."

It's not just the monsters, the environment is also 'stronger' the deeper I go. If my 'shadow lance' hits a normal rock it will get completely shattered, but on the rocks around here, it can only leave a small mark. Also, I've noticed that the 'advanced magma' is more common than before, at this point there's more of it than regular magma.

"Is that the way?"

Longleg is pointing to what looks like a set of stairs going down, if the pattern continues the level of the monsters is going to increase again... at least I think that I'm getting near the end, I hope.

And after going down I see... an exit from the cave leading outside... what?

"Hisss"

"Woah!"

That scared me! A massive snake suddenly entered the cave I'm in. Its body almost looks like it's made of rocks and there's magma dripping from a few cracks, is this snake made of magma?

'Black wall'

I react just in time to block its attack. I would call it a fire breath, but the flames are so intense that it actually looks more like a fire beam.

'Shadow lance'

"Hisss"

Oh! that only left a small wound, all of the monsters before this one got at least somewhat injured after being hit by that spell.

Let me check it's level... it says 404! That has to be an error.

Now it's trying to bite me, but its mouth is too big to fit inside this cave. The mouth is open and right in front of me... I have to say, that thing is just asking for what's about to happen.

'Shadow blast'

*Bang*

"Ugh, I got chunks of snake all over me... actually, I think that this is magma."

I was about to clean myself when I see the snake leave the cave, which is rather impressive considering that it no longer has a head.

I follow it and immediately realize two things.

The first is that this is not outside at all, it's just an open space big enough that it looked like the outside from where I was before.

The second is the reason why the snake could still move, it still has seven heads left. That's not a magma snake, it's a magma hydra!

And it seems like it's about to use that fire beam with all of its remaining mouths at the same time... I should probably stop holding back, there's nobody around here, and I'm fairly certain that this place can withstand even my stronger spells.

'Obliteration blast'

The combined fire beams hit the sphere of darkness I created but get easily overpowered. When my spell hits the hydra there's a massive explosion that makes me fall on my butt. It seems like the monster lost five of its heads and the last two took some heavy damage, its body also looks like a mess.

Still, I'm impressed. The last time I used that spell it destroyed an entire mountain, and yet the magma hydra is still standing.

'Obliteration blast'

But there's no way that it can survive the second one.

I have to say, being able to fight without holding back feels surprisingly refreshing. And now that I look around, there's a lot of monsters around here, all of them at around level 300, it seems like the explosions got their attention.

50-meter tall humanoid creatures made of stone, dragon-sized bats with their wings on fire, some strange featureless beings that seem to be made of gas, and I think that I see another hydra in the distance.

I'm all alone in a place that can withstand my full power, surrounded by monsters strong enough to justify using it... I know so many powerful spells that I've been too afraid to use, this really seems like the perfect opportunity...

I put on my 'sky terror cloak' to manifest my wings without needing to divide my attention to use flying magic. Once I'm in the air I charge at the closest stone creature.

'Dimension slash'

I manifest a blade of mana capable of cutting space itself and sent it flying at the monster. Not only that one gets sliced in half, but also the next three behind it, the blade continues to fly for what I estimate to be another three kilometers before hitting the wall of the cavern and disappearing. Those rocks also seem resistant to this type of attack and my spell had already been weakened by the distance it had traveled, but it still leaves a visible crack.

The flying monsters are now coming at me from all directions, the bats and the gaseous beings.

"You're just making this easier!"

'Rain of destruction'

I raise my hand and send my mana upwards. Two seconds later, hundreds of 'shadow lances' begin to fall, altering their direction slightly to hit the monsters.

The bats and the remaining rock monsters got completely obliterated, but the monsters made of gas seem to be impervious to that kind of damage, some of them even manage to get close enough to burn me a little.

Well, if normal attacks don't work, I'll try using curse magic.

'Black hex'

This curse can remove the target's magic protections, and as I thought, the reason why those things could repeatedly set themselves on fire like that is that they had a protection against fire. Without it, they all get burned out by their own flames.

But that was just a relatively normal spell, I want to use the strong ones... just as I'm thinking that, I see another group of giant bats approaching, as well as two magma hydras, but these ones seem smaller than the other one... that's a bit disappointing.

"Hahaha! Perfect! I needed some more targets!"

'Blackhole'

The stronger version of 'gravity bomb', my 'black hole' drags all of the remaining monsters into it, crushing them beyond repair with immense pressure. Only the hydras are able to resist the pull, but they seem to be off-balance, they are vulnerable to another attack.

"Take this! HAHAHA!"

'Obliteration blast'

'Obliteration blast'

'Obliteration blast'

"HAHAHA! HA HA! ha ha! ha ha... ha..."

There are no monsters left in sight, and it seems like the five minutes are up because my wings just disappeared. Huh... what was I doing? I got caught in the moment and started laughing like a maniac, I had underestimated how good it would feel to be able to go all out with my magic. I always hold back a lot so I was not prepared for this...

This place looks like the scene of a massacre. I feel so embarrassed, it's a good thing that no one was here to see what I just did or I would never have been able to live it down.

"Anyway, where should I go next Longleg? Huh, Longleg?"

Longleg is on my palm and he's trembling for some reason, I hope that he's not sick.

"Ah, I feel better now"

I didn't notice because I got caught in the moment, but I actually used around half of my mana back there, that was a lot more dangerous than I thought...

I had not experienced the feeling of being down in mana since I was a child. Fortunately, I found the leyline that I'm trying to move and it has a lot of dark mana. I took a bit to replenish myself, I hope that they won't mind.

The source is near, I can feel it just on the other side of this wall, the sources of a bunch of other leylines are also there, but how can I get through?

"Over there?"

Longleg guides me to an opening on the wall, it's so small that I would not have found it myself.

Can I even fit in there? Barely, it seems, I somehow manage to squeeze myself through the tight corridor and end up in a large circular room.

"What is this place?"

The only other exit seems to be an equally small opening on the opposite side. My goal is right there, I can feel it.

"GROOOOWL!!!"

But then I see something really big coming down from above.

forli

Then again, this means that Luna will get to meet the devil in chapter 66, which seems more appropriate somehow.