Less than an hour after entering the dungeon, Darius and Gunner came upon the boss monster of the first floor.
[Shadow Abomination - Level 20 Monster
HP: 272/272 MP: 210/210 STA: 320/320]
This particular monster was located in the midst of a small cavern at the end of the tunnel. It was a large blob of Shadow element energy that had many black tentacles wiggling from its mass.
It had no face, no eyes, and nothing resembling anything other than its orb-like body and endless tentacles. The moment it sensed Darius and Gunner enter the room, it screeched in a weird manner and swung all of its extremities their way.
Gunner simply stepped forth and stretched his hand out. The Shadow Abomination screeched with what should be fear as its entire body was pulled over to Gunner.
Instead of giving it a casual tap, Gunner cocked his fist back and narrowed his eyes. Once the boss monster got into range, he punched out using his classic skill that had never failed him.
Earthen Punch!
The collision of the fist and monster caused its rapidly approaching body to deform horribly, Gunner's hand stretching its mass greatly as its force was slowly canceled out.
When Gunner reached the height of his punch, the blob was blasted away to the edge of the cavern, knocking a hole into the wall as it brutally collided with it. While it might not be a typical monster that would suffer organ damage from such attacks, it didn't mean that it was immune to the rebound.
Its tentacles swayed erratically, and the blob struggled to reform itself into a sphere from the currently deflated balloon-like look it had.
Darius Inspected the monster to see how much that one attack had managed to shave off.
[Shadow Abomination - Level 20 Monster
HP: 228/272 MP: 210/210 STA: 320/320]
Darius winced on behalf of the monster. Suffering 44 damage from a physical attack alone for a darkness-type monster like this was quite brutal.
Of course, if Darius were to use a light or fire type spell on it, he would gain elemental bonus damage that could beat this damage output most likely.
However, he was content to let Gunner vent his boredom for having been cooped up for 5 years. There had been only a few instances the Branded Servant had been asked to set out and deliver skill and spellbooks, so the half-giant enjoyed beating down anything that came into his path.
Gunner did not give the poor boss monster time to collect its bearings, as he pulled it over with his gauntlets and repeated the same sequence once more, sending the abomination right into the same hole it made, deepening it further.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Gunner rinsed and repeated this method, always maintaining perfect accuracy in sending the monster into the hole it created upon collision. At this point, anyone could tell that Gunner was using the boss monster as a form of ball to play this game.
To Darius and any onlooker, this would be an interesting and amusing sight. To Gunner, this was a little bit fun and that quelled his pent-up boredom. For the boss monster, this was the worst day of its life.
After a few more hits, it turned into a puddle of bubbling shadow essence that slowly thinned until it burned out of existence. With Darius and Gunner both at level 21, they both got to share exactly 1 point of experience.
Of course, the drops were what was more important, as they received many useful Darkness element materials that could be used to create equipment, make special potions, or even summon elemental familiars.
Darius and Gunner watched as the opposite end of the cavern morphed from a blank wall to a wall with two staircases carved within, one leading upwards and another leading downward.
The duo unhesitatingly walked downwards and entered the second floor which was meant for Journeymen. Since they had no intentions of gaining levels here, exactly how did Darius plan to go forward then?
Well, the answer had been prepared by him during his 5 years of seclusion. He opened his Inventory and removed a hundred Bags of Holding from a specific slot within. It was one of the standard Bags of Holding made by the Transmutation ability that surpassed all others.
[Bag of Holding - Storage
Durability: 1,000/1,000
Quality: Perfect
Description: A unique item that connects a material bag to a special sub-space that is only accessible by the owner of the item. This item can store up to 500 things, allows for smaller lifeforms to be stored, and negates their weight totally. Created through pure Transmutation.]
Looking at the amount of bags that Darius had, one could feel a small heart attack, wondering just how many items he had and how he even planned to use or distribute them?
Could the entirety of Andrato Kingdom even swallow it all, if he were to hand it over?
However, once he released what had been stored away, any greed would quickly dissipate.
It was an endless swarm of bugs that were the size of a human adult's fist, their endless buzzing creating a cacophony on this floor.
Once the bugs came out, they displayed their extremely violent behavior and cruelty, trying to nibble and gnaw on everything they saw in order to sate their neverending hunger.
Interestingly, none of them dared to harm Darius or Gunner, whereas not even the rocks on the floor were spared from their insatiability.
Darius clapped his hands with a light smile. "Yes yes, you are hungry, I know."
Once he clapped, all the bugs froze and quickly lined up before him respectfully, like students rushing to the call of their headmaster.
Darius was satisfied by their obedience and spoke while pointing to the tunnel before the group which was the exact same as the floor above.
"Go forth and raze everything you see in your way to nothingness."
The bugs screeched like he had just told them he would take them to Disneyland, quickly rushing out to fulfill his order which sounded like music to their ears.
The shadow beasts that tried to jump out and attack them were quickly ripped to shreds by the 50,000 bugs that quickly filled the tunnel.
