Chapter 425: 47th Floor – Maximum Donkey

Chapter 425: 47th Floor – Maximum Donkey

I had to back track slightly to since the path had changed. The path to the North had been moved to the East by two units. It was annoying, but it was expected. Thankfully there were no more changes in the path. I reached the blade trap in front of the golden key rod and activated it, before moving forward to snatch my prize.

There was not enough space between me and the monsters to take the short shut I wanted, so I was going to take the less desirable one right here. The monsters closed in, and I hopped off at the edge of the platform to the South as hard as I could. Air Burst.

I landed and began to easily make my way along the path. I still checked for illusioned floor pit traps in case the golden key rod had been a trigger to move things around. That wasn’t the case thankfully. I followed the path at the North side of the floor, turning South before the very end.

There was a dead end with a short gap right into a blade trap. One of the many joyful things I had discovered on an earlier floor that I was more than happy to bypass and save my energy on. I made my way across the platforms without issues and reached the boss door. I didn’t hesitate and placed the golden key rod into the slot. The door swung open.

Oh, that is bullshit! The center of the boss room where the boss spawner was, was a null skill area. I had come to detest that type of flooring in the tower. I raced into the room, after a checking for traps, but there were only the energy and pit traps in the corner like the lower floors, no spawners either. The door shut behind me and I maneuvered to the South edge of the room.

The Human Hammer Golem appeared and the cat level 4 monsters didn’t enter the room through a hidden passage. I let out a sigh of relief as the boss stomped towards me. I wasn’t worried about this fight in the slightest now.

I just needed to lure the boss out of the null skill area in the center of the room and then blitz it. Thankfully my plan went off without a hitch this time. Once the boss cleared the null skill area, I zipped in and took it out.

That had been easy, but I wasn’t about to complain. With the cramping going on in my gut, I felt like I was going to die. I dragged myself to the elevator and went up to the forty eighth floor. Almost there. I was so close that I could taste my escape from this hell.

I collapsed onto the stone bench and pulled out one of my remaining pieces of fruit in the safe room. I forced myself to eat it. I was a mess, I felt like a mess. I hadn’t felt this exhausted since my first days in the Systemic Lands. My gut was about ready to blow, and unlike before it was only getting bigger, not smaller.N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.

Finishing up my piece of fruit, I waited for my energy to come back. I had gone all out on the last boss, not wanting the fight to drag out. Now I just had this floor to get through. The null skill was slowly expanding from the Northeast corner where the golden key rod was located. As long as I checked for traps, I should be fine.

The level 4 human hammer golems were fairly slow, and this floor had a lot of interconnected passages. That meant I could easily loop around to pull the monsters out of position. The boss was a much bigger headache, but there was nothing I could do about it.

I didn’t want to melt my own stuff after all. I then made my way back out to the middle of the room and laid down, waiting. While it had been tempting to go for full coverage of the floor right away with Acid Shot, that would have been a waste of energy and time.

Better to lure the monsters in and then take them out as a group if possible. Since I had no way to tell the boss from the minions and the boss would probably attack last with how skittish this monster behaved. It was a donkey after all, it would do the most annoying thing possible.

I waited and eventually I heard the movement of metal pointed feet on stone as the monsters moved about. I could only hear two moving. Of course, the boss would wait. That meant I needed to disable the minions and not kill them so they didn’t respawn and I could lure the boss in to attack.

Both minions leapt at me at the same time. My danger sense flared. Acid Shot x3. Acid Shot x3. Both were partially hit and began melting. Air Burst! I slid out of the way as they impacted the floor where I had been laying. I had given myself some lift, so I didn’t scrape off my back.

The two level 4 monsters collapsed, but didn’t turn to dust. I let out a sigh of relief, since I had judged the amount of damage correctly. One of the many things I had picked up in my tower climb, a strong ability to judge how much was needed to disable a monster.

Danger! The boss was coming right for my head. It hadn’t made a sound, I had no idea what direction it was coming from. I just could sense the danger. Acid Shot x10. Acid Shot x10. I aimed directly upwards with both attacks and brought my arms up to either side of my neck.

The level 5 boss appeared and its pointed feet dug into my left arm. “Ahhh!” I screamed in pain. The acid fell down and washed over us. I screamed some more as my foot partially melted. The boot I had been wearing had melted into my flesh, and unlike my flesh was susceptible to my acid attack. I screwed up.

The boss was killed, turning to dust and I had collapsed to the ground. My left foot was bleeding again and my left arm was also bleeding where the boss had dug in its pointed feet. While I had exerted my Body stat to the max, it wasn’t enough to counter a level 5 monster whose main attack was a physical attack.

I needed to move. I was bleeding too much. Air Burst. I used my skill to right myself and then hop over to my pack. I ripped off the pack straps and tied them off around my left leg and left arm. With just my right hand and mouth it was a massive headache. If the boss had gotten my right arm, I would have been done more.

The bleeding slowed down to a slight trickle. I tried to make the straps as tight as possible, but it was hard. Knowing basic first aid and trying to do it on yourself while heavily injured are two very different things unfortunately.

I never thought I would need first aid. I would either die, or win. Even if I got injured there were restorations to patch me up. Thank the Almighty System there were two floors left at most. I don’t think I could stand much more of this.

Drinking half my remaining water and eating two pieces of fruit in the boss room, I knew I needed to keep moving. Just one more Michael. “One more. I got this. Believe! Friendship! Magic! Power! Meta-points! AHHHH!” I pushed myself up to a standing position while holding my pack in my right hand. It had no straps left to go onto my back. I hopped my way to the elevator.