Alyssa could feel that her life was at risk facing such a monster. She was at the peak of E Rank, but even with her special elements, she was sure she would not be able to kill this monster.
"A Vialmir," she knew about this monster because it was one of the trickiest C- Rank monsters that could appear in a dungeon.
"Stay back and support me," Asher said, fully knowing what this dungeon had in store for them.
A Vialmir was a C- Rank monster, but it was one of the trickiest monsters to hunt in a dungeon. The fact that these monsters never appeared outside the dungeons that had biomes suitable for them made it difficult to kill.
Although it was fortunate for them they had only encountered a single Vialmir, as it was a C- Rank dungeon, higher level dungeons had groups of Vialmir. A monster that could switch into medium to close combat easily, and whose strength could rival mid C- Rank monsters, was a notable factor why they were so dangerous.
A monster taller than 2 meters, with long hands and a body covered in a hard shell, and with its hands covered in fire. The fact that they had four eyes not only increased their field of vision but also allowed them to dodge any surprise attacks as well.
Alyssa was a bit nervous, but she knew that if she made a mistake, both of their lives would end here.
'Not like this,' she told herself.
She had just gotten a ray of hope in her life that was full of darkness. She had finally gained a chance to exact revenge on her enemies. Alyssa calmed herself down and looked at Asher, who was staring at the monster with an indifferent face.
The Vialmir finally moved as its creepy eyes looked at the two humans in front of it, and the monster shouted again.
"You know their weak points, right?" Asher said as he swung his sword around.
His eyes were focused on the Vialmir, but there were only a few nodes he could see on the monster.
"Yeah," Alyssa said as she summoned 10 Ice lances above her head, ready to shoot any time.
Humans had ventured into dungeons for a long time, and the knowledge allowed the current generation to know every weakness of almost all the monsters that were present in the dungeon.
The Vialmir dashed towards Asher, as it had perceived him to be a bigger threat to its existence than Alyssa. From its burning hands, whip-like things made of blazing hot lava came out and extended towards Asher.
Asher's speed was enough for him to see the blazing whips, so he sidestepped from his initial position, and saw the whip land on the empty ground making an impact on the ground.
Seeing Asher had dodged its attack, the monster shouted in anger.
"SCRRRRRRRRREEEEEEECH," the Vialmir dashed towards Asher.
The whips went back into its arms, and small, sharp-looking claws could be seen beneath the burning hands of the Vialmir.
Asher raised his sword to block the attack of the Vialmir, but the strength of the Vialmir pushed him back a bit as they were locked into their position.
Asher's body was covered with aura so he could handle the heat coming out of the Vialmir's body. The monster's eyes stared into the crimson eyes of Asher. Despite Asher suppressing his killing intent, the monster could sense danger coming from Asher.
But it was too focused on Asher, and it made him completely ignore the Ice Lances that came towards its head.
*BAM*
The impact of the Ice Lance shook the neck of the monster, and Vialmir lost its grip on Asher's sword.
Asher did not miss his chance and immediately pushed the monster back.
"Swift Strike!" Asher's sword changed its trajectory from a horizontal blocking position to a downward slash.
During his attack, Asher could see a few nodes around the hard stone-looking shell that covered the monster's body. His sword, which was covered with his aura, managed to cut Vialmir's body.
The monster instantly dodged backward, sensing danger, but it was too late as Asher had already managed to wound it.
Vialmir's eyes saw the cut below its chest region.
'Shallow,' Asher knew that the attack was not enough to seriously injure the monster.
"SCREEEEEEEECH," Vialmir was seriously enraged as a weaker human was harming it.
Despite sensing danger from Asher, the monster still dashed towards him, but its speed was faster than before. Vialmir's claw-like legs started burning with fire, and Alyssa again attacked it with a few more Ice Lances, but the monster easily dodged them while still running towards Asher.
There was a reason why fighting Vialmir was dangerous, and those who had fought similar monsters like it could see the change in the monster. Monsters like Vialmir used the strength of the surroundings, like lava, to burn their bodies and produce more energy.
Although it was a short boost, the dungeon environment allowed such beasts to get more and more lava or similar elements that could increase the times they used such skills by several times.
That's why to fight such a dungeon, a water element-aligned mage was needed, and Alyssa was filling that spot for Asher right now. Asher's eyes looked at the incoming beast, but as Vialmir almost approached him, Alyssa used her gravity magic to slow down the beast.
"Descend," she focused on holding it back, but it was difficult for her.
The Vialmir was confused, but it was enough for Asher, who could see the nodes more clearly now. His sword got covered in his deep blue aura as he slashed the approaching monster. But even for Alyssa, it was difficult to slow down Vialmir any further than 20% of its current speed.
The difference in rank was too much for her to handle. Her previous attacks were distractions to make the monster approach Asher.
She saw Asher, who instantly closed the gap between him and the Vialmir and removed her gravity magic. Sensing the pressure was gone, the monster raised its claws to cut down the human in front of it.
Asher ducked a bit as he swung his sword in an upward arc. Asher's eyes could see that his sword was faster than Vialmir's approaching claw. His red eyes were staring at the monster in front of him. There was no fear in Asher's eyes; he had fought more terrifying monsters than a mere Vialmir.
*Slash*
Asher's sword travelled cutting through the gap in the shell on Vialmir's arm, slicing it down. But before the monster could writhe in pain, it saw Asher's body turn and his right hand twisting the sword's direction.
Asher turned his sword and concentrated his aura on the tip of it, thrusting it into the throat of the monster, which was the only part not covered in a hard shell around Vialmir's body.
"You did it," Alyssa said as Asher's sword penetrated the throat of the monster, making its way out of the head of the monster.
[ Host has gained 5000 EXP ]
Asher looked at Vialmir, whose eyes were staring at him, as blue blood kept flowing onto his sword from the monster's throat.
He removed his sword and swung it to remove the blood present on his blade.
Asher saw Vialmir's body slump on the ground as the fire on his body died down, revealing its claw.
Asher wanted to try and absorb Vialmir's stats, but his skill was still in cooldown, so he took the corpse and placed it in his spatial ring.
Asher crouched down and sat on the ground as he took a few deep breaths. His previous fight had drained a lot of his stamina to keep up with the monster.
"Huff," Asher saw Alyssa approaching him.
"Are you fine?" She extended her arms to lift Asher up.
Asher stared at her hand and eventually took it.
"Yeah," Asher said while looking in the direction where Vialmir came from.
"This is not good for us," Alyssa said while taking the body of Hyelthers in her spatial ring.
Although they had managed to defeat the C-Rank Vialmir, she remembered the important thing she had read about them.
Vialmir's existence meant that there was not a single Vialmir, but multiple ones. This dungeon was a perfect place for Vialmir to exist.
But hoping that it was a C-Rank dungeon, she knew there were at least 5-6 more Vialmirs in this Dungeon. And if they encountered two at the same time, it was not looking good for them.
"Let's rest for 10 minutes," Asher's voice made Alyssa come out of her thoughts.
"Okay," she nodded as she thought Asher needed to rest a bit, given he had defeated so many monsters himself.
But Asher was not that tired to stop and rest; what he was waiting for was the cooldown of his bloodline ability. Right now, he needed more mana to sustain his aura, and Vialmirs were the perfect monsters to get such stats from.
Asher used his mana sense to see how many monsters were ahead of them, and he could see the presence of two more C-Rank monsters far ahead of them and many D-Rank Monsters before them.
This dungeon would take them a lot of time, and Asher wanted to find the Portal Gate, but he knew that it would be somewhere near the boss of this dungeon, which was still an unknown monster for now.
**************************
*KNOCK* *KNOCK*
"Come in," Farnus said as a panicked staff member came in front of him.
"What happened?" Farnus said while still looking calm.
"P-Principal, there is a dungeon defect in the first-year Assessment Test!!" The staff member hurriedly reported.
"What?" Farnus's face changed into a frown, but he still remained calm.
"Who is inside?" He needed to know who was stuck inside the dungeon before finding fault in the person who picked that dungeon.
"I-It's Asher Von Greville," Farnus's eyes went wide because this was the worst scenario that could happen right now.
From a Professor attacking him to him getting stuck in the Dungeon defect due to their mistakes, the aftermath of this incident could cause a scenario that Farnus wanted to avoid at any cost.
"Don't let anybody know about this until I say so," Farnus stood up and his aura alone was enough to shake the staff member.
"I will go there myself," Farnus said as he disappeared from his office.
The staff member immediately made sure that the order was followed. Apart from Farnus, nobody was informed except for a few staff members who were managing the assessment test where Asher was. He quickly informed the principal's order to those who knew about the news.
The strongest human in the world was on the move, knowing what the death of Asher could cause for them.
