160 -) 22nd Floor (2)
We left the 22nd floor halfway. Before leaving, I used healing touch on Nari until she was fine as new. She seemed unsure of what to say. She was likely grateful but hesitant since I already sold her once.
I also had no intention of getting her back and repeating the same cycle. She would also be on pins, so it would be best if we could solve this while staying separate. So there were a few solutions that came to mind.
I can use her as a battle slave and give her another place to stay. She can farm the dungeon and bring me money. This is not a bad approach, but not much preferred by me since I will be spending more money than necessary.
Another option is to make her a quester. She can take quests and complete them for free, aside from paying for her daily necessities. The problem is that I am not sure if it is a good idea to let her handle this kind of job when she did not get any quester training at all.
There is another option which is not profitable at all, but somehow sensible. I can give her to Sarya. She can use her as a bodyguard and a companion at the same time. She would love to have a helping hand, and she doesn’t discriminate against beastkin at all.
After deciding what to do, we left the dungeon for today and visited Sarya’s shop, Pinkdolls. There were a few people inside, and they looked like artisans rather than customers. So I decided to wait when Sarya gestured to me with her eyes that she would be done soon.
“Hello, Mr. Han.” The man who was speaking with Sarya a while ago said to me when their conversation ended. “It is good to see you. I hope you are doing well.”
“Oh, hi, Mr. Mirza,” I replied with a soft smile. “I am doing fine. Seeing that you are pleasant, I hope you will be able to finish the order we gave to you soon.”
“Haha, we sure will.” He laughed and said. “Thanks to Madam Sarya, we are able to supply enough fabric for our clothes.”
“I said so, didn’t I?” I said with a smile and turned toward Sarya, who was also coming closer with other artisans and merchants beside her. “She may be selling only female clothes, but she has all variants of fabrics. It is hard to satisfy her, so her goods are top-notch.” I said and added mischievously, “I know from experience.”
“Oh, i-is that so?” The man replied with a dumbfounded expression. He clearly did not get what I was talking about.
After that, we paid our greetings to each other and said farewells, then all artisans and merchants left. Sarya saw them off professionally and came to us with emotional eyes.
“Welcome, Han.” He courtly welcomed me, but her eyes scanned us like a predator. “It seems like you got another girl to yourself.” She said while squinting her eyes. “She looked like she got roughed up a bit. Did you manhandle her as soon as you got?”
“Of course not.” I shook my head softly while snickering at her. She looked cute acting serious. “Actually, you should know her already. She must have visited here with Woya and Wyn.”
“Did she?” Sarya looked to her again and tilted her head as if trying to look at another angle. “Now you said it, she looks familiar.”
“If I were to give you more detail…” I started to count from when I bought Nari for the first time to what happened when she was with us to why I sold her back.
“And that is how she ended up with us again.” I finished the story with me buying her from her last master.
“You are much more cruel than you look, Han.” She said with a frown and turned to her. “I hope no more tragedies like that happen from now on.”
“That is right,” I said with a nod. “That is why we are here.”
“Why here?” She asked as one of her brows was raised. “Do you want new clothes for her or something?”
“That would be good, but I am not here for that,” I said. “Aren’t your hands filled with work these days? How about getting an assistant?”
Sarya looked at me as if I were talking about something weird. Then I explained that she is a good fighter, has a good body and face that can enhance clothes that are put on her, and she is much more obedient than before.
She already had her employees, but they were mainly for labor jobs. She did not consider any assistant until now, but after insisting on at least trying it, she reluctantly agreed.
I wasn’t expecting her to accept this easily, though. Maybe she was affected by her dramatic story, or she did really need an assistant lately, or maybe she just thought that I would have to take her with me if she had refused. I did not know the exact reason, but things worked out for the better.
After dropping Nari off at Sarya’s shop, we finished the day since it was already near evening. The girls prepared dinner, I handled the equipment I had to use enchantment on, then we ate our meal together as always.
The night was as active as ever, whether thanks to my high vitality stat or the girls’ passion. After the long night, it was already morning.
We returned to the 22nd floor after breakfast.
The place we were teleported to was close to the spot where we left yesterday. Clearing our minds and leaving everything that happened yesterday behind, we continued to advance.
Since the floors become larger as you go upstairs, it took us until late noon to reach the boss room. We hunted many groups of flexible muds, rested from time to time, and even took a break to fill our hungry bellies.
When we were in front of the boss room, there was just one group waiting. They were a group of 6 people. As we were climbing the floors, the people we encountered kept getting better at fighting, and their equipment became of higher quality. These people were equipped with at least steel equipment or something equal. Their equipment also probably had a skill crystal or two.
The door was still glowing, so there were people inside. We waited without any issue, then it started to fade at the 10th minute. After that, the group went inside, and we were the first in line now.
Alongside the enemies getting stronger, bosses also became fiercer, and it took much more time to kill them even if you have higher firepower. So we had to wait more than 30 minutes for the previous group to finish. Another group had already lined up behind us while we were waiting.
When we entered the room, it started to form as it always had. The interior resembled a canyon with all kinds of tones of brown forming the room. The floor was sticky and a bit slippery since it was covered with mud. Fortunately, it did not even reach our ankles.
In the middle of the room, as expected, the boss that was bigger than a regular flexible mud was formed. It did not attack right away, but started to cast earth and water particles that rotated around its body.
***
Race: Flexible Mud
Sex: None
Status: Normal
Level 22 Floor Boss
***
“Let’s begin,” I said while unsheathing my sword in wait.
The girls also took their positions: Woya at right, Wyn at left, and Elaris behind them.
Then the girls turned to me and started to run toward the enemy as soon as they saw me nodding my head.
The boss was slow, slower than other normal flexible mud. Its attack pattern and frequency were also just a bit slower than regular. The real problem was its defense.
The hovering earth and water shields around it did not fade away and kept rotating around, deflecting attacks coming through. As soon as the girls managed to destroy those shields, it cast a new one in their place.
The only attack that was able to reach it was Elaris’. Wyn and Woya just made a few blows to it, but that was not enough. Elaris’ attacks were also no good since they lacked the destructive power.
I watched them fight, and they started to get tired from nonstop fighting. The boss monster had a few cuts, some shallow holes, and a few arrows pinned on its surface. I thought that I had seen enough of them fighting for more than 10 minutes.
Since the enemy was not life-threatening, I decided to try a new attack that I have been practicing. So I raised my hands to the air while holding the long sword with both hands, and that made the sword’s tip directed toward the ceiling.
Then I focused my mind on using wind blade. It would normally form in front of my hand and launch when I let it go. But I tried to use another object to channel this energy beside my hand.
It started to come to my hand, directed toward the sword by its hilt to the blade. It started to consume much more mana than a normal wind blade. As mana got out of my body, a green hue and some air shift started to form around the blade of the sword.
I clenched the sword and swung it downward with all my force. Just when it was about to point the horizontal line, I let the spell go.
The green hue around the blade turned into sharp crescent wind blades, free from the sword. There were a few more of them than when I launched them with my hand. However, the main advantage of this was not the amount; it was speed.
The wind attacks’ advantages are mainly speed. It lacks destructive power, but it is hard to block since you have to be quick. It is not about the beginning speed. Wind attacks are quick to form, and since it controls the air around itself, it would not slow down much from friction either.
That was the main reason why I tried this kind of new approach despite it consuming nearly 10 times the initial mana it required. When the sword was at its peak speed and position, I launched the blades. This made the wind blades’ initial velocity much higher than normal.
Even with a lack of destructive power, it became several times stronger with additional speed. Even if it can’t crack down a target. It can slice down most of the obstacles on its way.
So did the wind blades. The water shields were sliced and deformed, and the earth shields seemed okay, as if the blades just passed through without doing any damage, but then split open with clean cuts.
Unfortunately, most of the blades were spent on getting rid of those shields on our side. So just two of them landed on the real body. They inflicted deep cuts, but they did not reach the boss’ core, so they only weakened its shell. There should be subsequent attacks after that area.
The girls tried to land follow-up blows. Wyn ran before Woya and cleared newly forming shields, and Woya tried to stab her long sword. Elaris also fired arrows nonstop, so it took damage. But it was not enough.
“Again! Get ready!” I shouted and raised my sword again while the boss started to cast new shields.
Since they were waiting for my attack and had experienced it just now, they would react to it better than before. So they took their stance and got ready.
“Elaris! Use sharp shooting as soon as I clear the shields!” I instructed Elaris while preparing the attack.
In the meantime, Wyn and Woya kept dodging the boss’s attacks to attract its attention. I readied and used a bit more mana than I did before. When I reached the limit of how much I could control, I swung my sword and released the wind blades.
The blades cut both water and earth shields like butter. The water shields turned to falling accumulated water that was emptied from the bucket. The earth shields cut cleanly like clay cut with a sharp knife.
It had fewer shields than before since it was still accumulating, so 5 wind blades were able to reach its body. Most of them hit a different path, but 2 of them intersected close to its center.
Woya and Wyn also rushed to deal as much damage as possible. At the moment right after wind blades hit the enemy’s body, Elari’s arrow, which was faster and more precise than all the arrows she shot today, hit the intersection of cuts.
The arrow dug deep, and the boss stumbled as if it hit somewhere fatal. As Elaris continued to shoot, the girls also were upon it. They gave strong blows to its sturdy body one after another.
The boss monster’s body was more adamant than regular flexible mud. However, it was battered to the point it could barely form new shields and merely glide in the air.
Seeing that it was close to being destroyed, I approached it. Seeing me coming closer to it, Woya and Wyn stepped back, and Elaris stopped shooting. It became clear from repeated actions that I would be the one to finish the boss monster.
I stood in front of the nearly annihilated core and deflected the attack it hastily launched. Then, swung my sword vertically from upside down. Since it already lost all of its shields between us, there was nothing that could block my sword, not like it would change anything.
The sword cut the core into two, and 2 half spheres fell to either side like a divided apple. Before it could even reach the floor, its body started to evaporate. It took a few seconds for its whole body to vanish and drop silver and copper Obscuras; the arrows struck into its body and 1 skill crystal.
***
Mire Skill Crystal
- Increase Mire affinity (Earth + Water Elements)
“Master, here.” Wyn gave me the skill crystal, and Woya gave me the 25 silver and 30 copper coins she collected.
It is a rare occurrence, so it is good to collect a skill crystal from time to time. I put the skill crystal into my pocket and pulled out other coins we collected on the 22nd floor so far from my inventory to count.
We killed 60 cores and a boss on this floor. Every monster dropped 2 silver and 53 copper coins, while the boss dropped 25 silver and 30 copper coins. It made a total of 145 silver and 3210 copper coins. I merged 3150 copper coins into 30 silver coins, so it became 175 silver and 60 copper Obscura coins.
It was close to 2 gold coins. The higher you go in the dungeon, the more coins dropped from each monster. I put the coins into two different coin purses so that silver coins would not merge.
“Good job, girls,” I said with a smile. “Let’s go eat something delicious.”
The girls nodded with a smile, and we left the dungeon.