Chapter 286 286. SWAMPY FOREST

It took the cold mists Noah's intervention with his air affinity to clear. He didn't feel ready to wait to see the outcome of his attack.

Fortunately, the scene that lay before him pleased him greatly.

He had managed to clear the numbers of the weaker serpents, but the mini-boss remained. However, its figure now featured injuries, even if they were only superficial ones.

Noah had suffered significant losses on his side too. Only five of his frozen golems remained, but he didn't hesitate to cast the spell three extra times to bring that number to 14.

Ignoring the huge crater that existed between him and the serpent and the icy chunks embedded into the walls of the expanse, the duo seemed to participate in a stare-off, and the beast soon raised its long neck to voice a powerful shriek. One that sent ripples through the air, even if they never managed to reach Noah's valiant figure.

Magical circles expanded beneath the green serpent, and to Noah's mild surprise a fiery battle armor encased it in its orange light.

That show was closely followed by its spitting of fireballs. But Noah had already come to realize that the fireballs were not an innate ability, but were spells of sorts.

Nevertheless, he could only shoot forward to begin his battle with the armored serpent.

Noah's figure turned into a yellow streak of crackling energy as he directly crossed the 4m deep crater and more than 200m wide, to arrive in front of the serpent.

A kick with his now empowered body landed on the beast's right front leg, shattering the armor on it. However, before his right leg could steer clear of that limb, the beasts crumbling armor exploded in a wave of dense orange flames.

The flames pushed Noah back and even spread cracks on his illusory armor, but his golems arrived at that point, preventing it from launching any other attacks, at least in the meantime.

Noah was now stronger than the boss even if by one level, and his golems expressed that reality. A violent battle quickly unfolded in his eyes.

His golems surrounded the beast in one swift movement, and some sacrificed their frozen limbs to grab hold of its legs and some of its tails.

A trashing began at that instant, but the golems weren't going to let go that easily, Noah had to move back to be able to safely watch them since the serpent cracked its tail uncaring of the damage it was doing to itself and its surrounding.

Three golems were caught in the beast cracking tail, immediately being destroyed, but the others soon began to unleash physical violence on it.

Noah watched his golems die out to get rid of its armor and even inflict a series of deep wounds on the serpent, even if they weren't able to kill it.

He didn't hesitate to utilize the weakness his golems had created to stab the beast with his energy blade.

A shriek of agony burst out of the serpent's teethed mouth at that event, and it quickly began to trash itself around that area. Noah had not been able to properly remove his arms before it began its trashing, so he was caught up in that desperate display to keep its life.

Red blood never stopped flying everywhere, and the area soon started to see pools of blood forming.

Having enough of its annoying actions. Noah cast a lightning bolt inside the beast, and he found himself barreling back into the air as a result of the explosion that followed the event.

Crashing and rolling inside the crater, Noah quickly jumped up to sprint towards the beast, but what he laid eyes on, forced him to relax.

His spell had opened a large hole on the other side of the beast, where Noah could clearly see its insides. However, for some absurd reason probably its innate resilience, the beast had not died yet. Even if it was close to doing so.

Sighting Noah's lightly injured figure, the serpent seemed about to do something, when its opponent suddenly disappeared from his position then everything went black for it.

Steering clear of the fountain of blood that spurted out of the serpent's severed head. Noah watched its body turn into a yellow glowing mass, before shattering into innumerable particles flowing towards and into his figure.

Noah leveled up once bringing his level to 77. A relieved sigh escaped his mouth while he walked towards a spot free of blood to sit and rest.

The second floor had been easier to clear than the first one, mainly due to his increased level and the low number of weaker serpents. Had they numbered up to fifty, he would have needed more time and energy to successfully clear the floor.

[You have successfully cleared the second floor]

[You can now proceed]

The sound of the heavy-looking door behind him opening disquieted the whole expanse after the panel appeared In his eyes.

Noah spent a bit more than half an hour resting before he considered himself fit enough to begin his journey to the last floor. Thankfully he still contained around 50k points of SE in his core.

That reality proved shocking, and when he glanced at his SE stats, he felt his heart palpitate in excitement. It had more than doubled from the last time.

However, when he looked at the fact that each level he gained increased his stats based on percentage and not points, that reality felt less shocking.

His core had grown exponentially as he neared the limits of the spherical stage.

In truth, Noah had started to feel like a profound expert with his strength. All his stats had more than doubled from when he came there which meant he could most likely one-shot middle-staged experts if he so desired.

Unfortunately, things were different within the bounds of the dungeon. The beasts there made him seem like a normal expert battling creatures his level. He felt sure that no expert his level on the outside world could face what he faced unless they stood at the peak of the lower stage or higher stage.

'She's in for a surprise,' Noah giggled walking past the door and finding a stairway that led far down than before. The distance from the second floor to the third floor was more than 200m. 200m of hard ground separated them

Noah found himself walking into a clear environment as the path that lay before him was that of a cliff.

A vast land area expanded before his astonished eyes as they fell on the immense mountain-chain-like wall before him. The mass of earth obstructed his view as a wall, but the area before and below him was large enough for seeing. Spanning a few ten kilometers in radius. The place however was dark, but a strange dim light lit that environment up.

Glancing at the space beneath him, Noah felt another wave of surprise when he laid eyes on a forest. The only issue was that it stood more than 600m below him. A light purplish fog also existed above the mass of trees and water.

[You have arrived on the third floor]

[Swampy forest]

[Get to the door at the end of the forest to proceed to the next floor]

[Hidden mission found: Survive the swampy forest]

[Prize: Grade C weapon]

[Note: You only have two chances at failing to survive; after which you truly die]