God of Zero Cost

The narrow limestone track sloped sharply into the dark, dropping Ethan into a wide, hollow vault that smelled heavily of oil. Deep, natural fissures cut through the stone floor, their depths glistening with thick pools of black petroleum that bubbled slowly in the dark.

His scarab golem rumbled forward, its heavy footsteps echoing as they descended. When Ethan stepped into the hollow expanse, a flash of familiarity hit him. The trench had torn open onto a colossal theater, with a vaulted stone ceiling that curved away into a pitch-black height.

But something felt different from his first run.

The vast cavern walls were now draped in peeling, shimmering layers of rotted Canaanite cloth. It looked gaudy and decayed. Along the floor, the white Kipsu ash was smeared with dark black tar.

"Well, hello there." Ethan muttered as six elite wardens stepped out into view.

Three of them carried heavy shields. The other three wore ash-stained cloaks, no axes. Their green-patinated bronze scale armor clinked as they shuffled forward.

"Same same but different huh," Ethan pondered. "Me too."

Ethan didn't retreat. Unlike the first run, his golem had more tricks to play, he immediately commanded it to spray tar to funnel their path towards him.

Ethan readied his sling and started picking them out one by one as they shuffled forward. The sling cords whipped with a crack, the wardens with shields raised to block. Ethan switched targets to hit the cloaked wardens. The iron-oxide bullet shot straight into the warden's flashing nephesh throat.

By the time the third cloaked warden fell, the first shield warden had reached his golem and started to thrust its spear.

it got caught in MK II.5 shell. The scarab battle reached out to hold the shield in place as Ethan swung his iron bullet into its throat.

Within a few minutes, they had finished of the six guards. Ethan quickly looked around, scanning for the final boss.

Silence.

Ethan lowered his arms as the silent subterranean amphitheater grew quiet.

Ethan reached out and picked up a knife from the mess of old metal and white bone flakes.

They weren't bronze, but his eyes narrowed as he scanned their descriptions. Gomorrah.

"Where was that again?," Ethan murmured, keeping the cheap weapon into his inventory. Every bit of scrap adds up.

A deep, low rumble shook the high place.

Something rose at the far corner of the theater, a altar and a massive stone throne above it began to glow with a sickly amber light. The entity sitting upon it slowly stood up.

It was a towering, faceless shape—The Rephaim Usurper, Bigdei Bera.

But something looked off again. The fourth meter-tall giant caked in tar was wrapped in tattered, gold-threaded royal robes. His crown wasn't a flickering astral radiance of a fallen morning star. The heavy, jewel-encrusted crown looked tiny on the featureless shadow head, tilting awkwardly on one side. The moth-eaten robe dragged heavily across the tar as the titan stepped forward.

Ethan glanced up at the dungeon boss as he fed another stone into his sling.

Let's see if the new plan works. Ethan thought to himself, getting ready to try the boss fight for the second time.