Chapter 177 – Breezing through the floors.

Chapter 177 – Breezing through the floors.

It turned out that, fortunately, the dungeon was temperate. Also, every single floor was a joke. John couldn’t stretch that enough. A real. Giant. Joke. Floor five, breezed through; floor six, decimated; seven, annihilated; eight, obliterated; nine, massacred. John had almost felt bad for the Cupids they were taking out, small little angels with cute wings and bows that shot pink arrows. Their appearance deserved to cover the front of a valentine’s card, not to be impaled by a bolt from Mono’s Lesser Lance of Longinus or by the metal projectiles Lydia used.

That wasn’t to say that they weren’t a threat. Like the Demon dungeon, the Angel one was a multitude of towers connected via bridges, although everything was golden and shiny, instead of grey and dank.

The enemy’s patterns were also inverted. Where the Satantyr had been holding each and every tower like a small fort, with the Cupids it was a fight from bridge to bridge. The flying enemies would start showering them with arrows, in groups from five to twenty. With Sylph in the group none of the arrows ever hit their mark, though. The tempest elemental even went as far as to redirect the arrows to hit another Cupid just because it was all too easy.

Now, they were on floor 10, and a few things had changed. The monsters looked different and the environment had been replaced with the inside of one giant tower, rather than a multitude of small ones. Beyond that, the situation remained the same. They remained easily capable of cutting through everything that came before them.

The enemy of this Floor was the Guardian Spirit. One of these animated suits of armour was currently facing them, in all of its silver, gleaming glory. It was getting kicked around by Rave, sliced by Aclysia, and cracked open by Gnome. A halo above its head flickered and finally vanished, moments before the entire monster turned into dust.

“Johnnie, where is my challenge?!” Rave, now level 62, complained. A question that he had no immediate answer to.

The way this floor was laid out was rather interesting. There was one of these Guardian Spirits (sometimes two, but that was a rare occasion) per room. They never left these rooms, unless baited out by a member of the group. That meant that, basically, they were free to take a break between every single encounter, which gave this more of a round-based feeling. The rooms in turn were situated around a giant circular hall. John led the party back into that hall at the moment.

Like the previous floor, the colour scheme of the hall was gold and shiny. Ornaments curved through white marble; a bas-relief, depicting the biblical tree of life, decorated the ground. So finely worked was that picture that the light from the shining crystal up above reflected in every single one of the uniquely worked apples of gold hanging from the carved tree. John didn’t doubt that the boss would spawn here, once they had cleared all of the rooms.

“Johnnie!” Rave repeated and snapped her fingers in front of John’s face a few times.

“What?” he asked, then remembered her earlier question. “Oh, sorry, dunno, honestly, I expected it to be easy but not THIS easy,” he answered and tried to find her something to keep her entertained. Most of the doors already stood open.

“I, too, am slightly surprised by the ease of this,” Lydia chimed in, checking her status at the same time. “What do you say the level of these enemies is?”

“66 to 70,” John told her, “I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised... how is your EXP gain by the way?”

Rave was the first to answer that question, “I get around 0,5 percent per mob, I guess?” she said.

“0,1 percent,” the princess added.

“And the last boss gave you...?” John probed, thinking he had figured things out.

“1 percent,” Rave said. “And you don’t have flat numbers on display? Only percentages?” He probed further.

“That is correct,” Lydia stated, Rave also nodded.

“Okay, so it seems that you earn more EXP for higher level enemies, but what you gain is capped at 1% max for bosses. Now, I would theorize that Gaia made that cap even lower for different kinds of enemies just to disable me from abusing this and getting people power-levelled,” John spelled out his idea.

“Certainly sounds like her,” Rave agreed.

“How would you know?” Lydia asked.

“Just kinda the way tiger describes the texts he's getting... plus the way he told me she acted when he met her.”

“You met Gaia?” Lydia asked, one of her eyebrows shooting up. “Are you earnest in this claim?”

“I met her twice,” John reported. “Both meetings were very brief. Also, as Jane said, she is writing my Achievements, and, believe me, the sass is real.”VịSit no(v)3lb/!n(.)com for new novels

“Gaia is a green haired woman, of a petite frame with a notably pronounced bottom. She is slightly taller than Sylph -in her big form-, with curly hair and a black dress that reveals almost all of her ass, due to its design, which slits the dress into four strands from the waist downwards. A google search has resulted in Tatsumaki from an anime called One Punch Man as reference,” Aclysia informed all of them.

“For real’zies?” Rave laughed.

“Uhm, no idea about that One Punch Man part but the rest is correct, yep, yep,” Sylph chirped. “Met her right before fighting mister pickle, we did. A true hero of the world, the bestest, most awesome Space Marine and a pickle. PICKLE DIO!”

“You didn’t tell me about either of those things!” Rave complained to John, barely holding back her laughter.

“Because I am still not convinced it really happened,” John said, walking towards the next door. “It was too stupid. Anyhow, if this is too easy for you, we can always just kill the rest and go to a higher floor,” he stated while entering the next room.

‘Shouldn’t you send in Aclysia or Gnome first?’ asked Mono in his head.

‘I normally would but, wooooaaah,’ he barely dodged a mace coming for his head, ‘I still have to beat the current Challenge.’

John wasn’t particularly afraid of the mace. Even though it looked impressive, a silver shaft with starlight as its head, swung by the animated armour, it was barely a threat. His HP was high enough that he could have tanked several hits. Even if an enemy managed to pummel and overwhelm him, Aclysia was right behind him, ready to intervene at any moment. So he could beat his current Challenge, to kill 50 enemies with Mana Blade, in relative safety. This was the last enemy he needed anyhow.

Ducking underneath the next attack, John extended his arm so that his flat hand pointed at the being’s helmet. Then he cast Mana Blade. Rapidly, the blade extended right through the enemy’s head. Pulling his arm downwards he split the living armour in two.

‘Should use it like that more often,’ John thought as the blade vanished, leaving his hand bare again. Having the blade appear only when his hand was already in position not only made the attack less predictable, at least the first time around, when the enemy didn’t know what the motion was about, but it also saved him a bit of time. With every Mana Blade only lasting 3 seconds, every moment counted.

With the enemy defeated he only needed 5% more to achieve the next class level. One more Challenge would surely do it.



‘Again?’

“These things must be really easy if even ya can beat them in melee,” Rave teased, while John closed the window. “

Oh, shut up, Jane,” John shot back, “poor guys are about 8 levels under me and really slow.”

“I continue to find this ease concerning.” Lydia rubbed her chin in deep thought.

“I think they are balanced around me trying to solo them,” John explained, “but, well,” he looked over to Rave, then Aclysia, Gnome, Salamander, Sylph, Undine, Mono and finally back to Lydia. “I found a way around that.”

“I see...but you say Gaia dislikes you abusing systems, right?” the princess inquired.

“She most certainly likes hiding full rocks of salt in my cheese, yes,” John nodded.

“Would it not be in her character to increase the difficulty by a rather absurd margin, then?”

That comment made the Gamer freeze. “That totally sounds like her,” he admitted.

“Wait...so assuming that is the case... and because she has been at least nice enough to delay taking my levelling powers away until after I fought Thana...” he mumbled to himself. Suddenly he ran out of the room and shouted. “GAIA, IF YOU STEALTH PATCH MY MONSTER SPAWN TABLE AND OR BUFF THE SHIT OUT OF EVERYTHING FROM THE NEXT FLOOR ONWARDS, I WILL TELL EVERYONE THAT YOUR ASS IS FLAT!”

“You’ll do no such thing!” In the air, far above them, suddenly, a rift opened. It was a round window with green edges, two-dimensional, physics defying and hovering there without a care in the world. Beyond it lay what looked like a stereotypical living room. Gaia stuck her green head and part of her torso out of said rift. With puffed up cheeks she shouted down: “I have a great ass!”

“Prove it!” Sylph said as she flew up there, “I wanna see, I wanna see! I also want to become bigger, please make me bigger, oh almighty world spirit.”

“Go away, Sylph!” Gaia cursed. “You sound just like your Mother which, oh-my-self, I do not need in my life. I still have headaches from the last time I had her over!”

Then he was out and continued running, eyeing the branches up above. His eyes fell on one of the pebbles in his path. Following a quick idea, John calculated, ‘New passive cost for the elementals is 1,9% times four is 7,6%, 1,9% from Artificial Spirit, so 2,97 mana per second minus 3... that’s barely negative, good enough!’ He grabbed a pebble and then ran far around the next descending branch. This one was smaller, giving him at least some hope that he could dodge.

The stone wasn’t unique, but it was a nice piece of marble that fit into his hand comfortably, ideal throwing size. After staring at it for a moment longer than necessary, he threw the pebble at the Tree of Life’s three faces. It hit, but was uselessly reflected by the golden energy field. The angle of impact caused it to land on the floor just below the three faces. The boss burst into laughter. “Ahahaha, a measly attempt, what has become of your Mana Power Attack, John Newman?”

Even the name of that attack made him cringe. ‘God, those were darker times,’ he thought as he ran around a dangerous looking bulge in the floor. Stone burst behind him, another whip-like root rising. ‘Well, that is going to cost me some more mana,’ he resigned himself when he saw it coming down through Mono’s eyes.

The root suddenly slowed down, giving John the breathing room he needed to get away. He only had to wonder what just happened for a moment. Lydia, in her full 18th century military glory, appeared at his side.

“3 pillars have been taken out,” she reported, “the spawn of ‘adds’ has been reduced to two. I chose to intervene, is this compatible with your strategy?”

“Yes, absolutely, you saved my ass there,” John thanked her. In this moment of relaxation he added, “...You are surprisingly good at not being in charge.”

“Subordinate is the appropriate word. As all members of the mainline, I was trained in the Prussian Noble Korps,“ Lydia explained. “It is selbstverständlich that I would be competent in various positions in the chain of command.”

“Your German is leaking there,” John commented with a broad smile. Lydia gave him one of her poisonous glances but slowed down the next root all the same. Her fingers clawed at something invisible, as she focused her Innate Ability.

“It is awfully convenient that it is made from soulless metal,” she pressed out, the strain evident in her voice.

“Well, if it were actual wood I could abuse Salamander. I generally beat my enemies through exploitation of weaknesses,” John said.

The princess shot him an interested glance, “You plan to do the same here?”

“Kind of,” his smile turned into a smirk, “depends on whether or not there will be another recycled mechanic. Let’s just say, I got the tools in place.”

With Lydia slowing down the attacks, dodging whatever the Tree of Life threw at them was child’s play. “So, how do you regenerate mana?” John asked, merely jogging at this point. The boss fight had been hard at the start, when the sudden difficulty spike had hit them. Now that they knew what to expect, it was group content they were slightly over-levelled for. Sure, if they fucked up, that’d be bad, but they had room for mistakes. John was happy to chat under these circumstances.

“Why do you ask?” Lydia looked questioningly at him.

“Well, Jane uses a breathing technique, I do it by existing, how do you do it? I see your mana slowly depleting, but it seems you have a lot of it, so I was wondering, is all,” he explained.

“...Everything that happens today...”

“Will stay classified, yes, yes,” John interrupted, “will you tell me or not?”

“...Typically, existence alone suffices, but in a pinch I can absorb metals,” Lydia said after a moment's hesitation. “My mana pool, as you call it, is quite vast and it does replenish slightly over time, but for the most part I do it by ingesting metals. I guess this is as good a time as any, to reveal to you my emergency strategy.” With those words, she suddenly stopped.

“Now I’ve got you!” The Tree of Life creaked and brought one of its giant branches down to squash Lydia. John, who was not entirely sure if this was a good idea, decided to trust Lydia that whatever trump card she had would allow her to survive that.

As the branch descended, the princess pulled back her vest, and reached into a pocket on the inside. What she pulled out was a vial filled with a mercury-like substance, glowing light blue. The metal cap that kept the vial sealed quickly flew off. Lydia gulped down the contents in one motion.

Her mana bar refilled within an instant. That wasn’t the end of it, however, as Lydia simply looked at the branch and it ceased to move. “This,” Lydia explained, showing the now empty vial to John, “Is a mercury mithril liquid alloy. It is worth quite a sum, so watch and listen closely.” Accompanied by the annoyed sounds of the Tree of Life, the princess raised her left hand. It looked like she was struggling against an invisible force. John could imagine the metaphysical resistance she was pushing against, her senses turning the intangible pushback into a reality that she strained against.

The branch above her quivered, then gradually was pushed backwards, then beyond that. Creaking and screeching, the metal wood snapped backwards at an unnatural angle. The Tree of Life screamed in anger and pain.

“Mithril is one of the rarest metals out there. It is hard to create and extremely rich in mana, and for metal users like me, it doesn’t just refill our own mana.” Lydia twisted her arm and the branch twisted in kind.

“CURSE YOU!” screeched the Tree of Life, and roots exploded from the floor around Lydia. The metal tentacles were pushed back, unable to enter the sphere of the princess’ influence.

“It temporarily boosts our limits!” she finished her explanation with a loud CRACK! The whole branch had been forced far enough and broke from the main body. The Tree of Life reeled from the loss, giving Lydia the time to step back, before letting out an exhausted groan. “This comes at the usual price of overexertion, however, and is taxing on the body.”

“Still pretty impressive,” John admitted, his gaze fixed on the branch that lay lifeless on the marble floor. For a moment he wanted to ask whether or not she got mercury poisoning, but then he remembered that she was part metal elemental, so that question became redundant. He wished he had a way to overcharge spells, there had been quite a few occasions where he would have much rather used a big attack to get a decisive victory earlier.

In the background, the last pillar crashed.

“Adds have been taken care of, thoroughly, all been beaten, yup, yup, I am the best. Sally was somewhat useful too, I guess. But not all that much. So, keep that in mind if you hand out rewards later, Johnnie, cause I am willing to trade some ‘oral favours’. Wink, wink,” Sylph palavered, leaving John with only one question.

“Why are you naked?”

The air spirit giggled, “You don’t like it?” she asked. Making a pirouette, her foot-reaching hair following her like a flag in a breeze, she showed off her milky white skin. “I felt like it, don’t you just want to take me to bed and take me like the cute courtesan I am? Come on Jonnie, get some inflation in that dick and fuck me right here, I don’t mind!”

“Quiet!” Undine’s voice whipped through the air, making Sylph jump both from the sharpness of its tone and the mental lash that accompanied it. The slime woman was filled to the brim with an annoyance beyond any John usually felt when she was dealing with the tempest elemental.

“Yeah, shut up,” Mono agreed, “that boss is still alive, am I the only one here that DOESN’T immediately get distracted by sex-stuff?”

“I would claim to also keep a level head,” Lydia stated.

“Oh, is that right? Well, I guess you didn’t just look at Sylph with keen interest then,” Mono drily stated and made a toss away gesture.

“What? Is that true? Did you look at my hot bod and were like, all enticed, princess?”

Before Lydia could answer, or Undine’s annoyance could manifest in another harsh admonishment, the boss stopped wailing. The silence was all they needed to refocus their attention.

“You insects,” it growled, “you will see my true form! Fight my guards until then!” The pillars started reconstructing. As if reversed in time, the broken pieces lifted off the ground and slowly put themselves back together.

Simultaneously, the golden barrier around the faces expanded, gradually covering the entirety of the boss. It forced the party back, putting them out of reach of the branches that could just as little reach out as they could reach in

“B-but,” Gnome looked at the pillars and frowned, “I just got done destroying those...”

“And you did a very good job,” John patted her head. The stone elemental made a very pleased face, then she remembered where she was, noticed her fellow elementals grinning at her, and blushed deeply.

“Wh-why are you all staring at me?!” she demanded to know.

“You are just so adorable when you are happy and embarrassed,” Salamander cackled, her laughter growing even stronger when Gnome turned into darker shades of red. “Now look at you, unable to say a thing! HILARIOUS!”

“What now, we wait for him to go into the next phase?” Rave asked, interrupting that little chat, “by the way, this was WAY better. Guys were actually a bit hard.”

“Well, I guess it was adjusted to be group content, so they were meant to be taken by one person each, instead of all three of them by one. But no, I guessed that he would recycle the barrier mechanic in this or a similar way, so I made preparations. Mono, how much mana do you still have?” “About 600, why?” “Mhm, I still have 413... that makes 5 attacks, should be enough.”

Inside the protective barrier the Tree of Life was going through a change. Soon its roots would no longer be bound by the earth, and its branches would turn into many arms, wielding blades of golden leaves. Soon, it would destroy the Gamer, once and for all!

At least that was what John thought was happening. Whatever it was, he had no intention of letting it happen when he had prepared the cheese. From his perspective as the pebble, he saw the three unprotected faces grinning widely, and John would have loved to punch each and every one of them. Sadly, he couldn’t do that as a pebble. He could use Arcane Explosion though. Wasn’t Spellcarrier nifty?

One, two, three, four, five of the balls spawned. They were supposed to be thrown, but without a hand that fulfilled that purpose, they spawned right on the ground, resulting in 5 almost simultaneous waves of arcane energy. The boss had no time to prepare. A burst of notable damage hit all three weak points five times over.

First the bubble, then the body underneath, began to disintegrate.