Shovels In Spades

Daz's armour slowly repaired itself as he controlled Hamson to slice right through the tentacle-wielding monster.

The armour had been pretty useless to him, in all honesty. So what if it could repair itself? What good was it if it never stopped any attacks at all? He was seriously considering abandoning the gift from Altros in favour of something with actual practicality.

He did want to get it unsealed at least but until then Daz decided to shelf the outfit the moment he could decide on or find a more suitable set of gear. After he had cleared this dungeon, of course.

On the front of his weapons, they weren't really an issue. Currently, he was only using Hamson since he could dodge the creature with enough effort.

The crimson rootslayer was sharp enough to cut through damn-near anything. Daz was certain this monster wouldn't challenge that fact.

He was quickly proven wrong though in some regard since the thing wouldn't stop flopping around in just the perfect manner to dodge the fast and deadly red blade of doom.

Quite like how he was using his Survivor's Instinct and high stats to perfectly avoid its attacks with a minimal margin for error, actually.

'Is this thing a perfect counter to me or something?' Daz thought before firing a Death Beam its way, finally deciding to stop using only Hamson.

It seemed the eldritch horror hadn't quite been moving as quickly as it possibly could because it blurred for a moment, increasing its speed to avoid both Hamson and the grey laser.

Daz furrowed his brow as he sprinted around the room, using every inch of it at his disposal to avoid the being of slime and pus. 'How can it be so fast and so dextrous without a soul? It's able to avoid two quick and deadly attacks while also having room to spare to chase after me... Fuck it. Skull it is. I came here to test that too, after all. If it can kill this thing, that's a great sign.'

"Laughing Skull," Daz invoked.

Behind him appeared the skull which was half blue and half green, being split down the middle. The fleshless head was larger now, Daz noticed as he glanced at it for a split second, almost earning him a tentacle right through the thigh.

The skull filled the entire back half of the room and was even breaking through it. Daz wondered if the reason Reika couldn't go through just simply didn't apply to the skull because it was a skill, not a person as the spirit was.

Regardless of Daz's thoughts, the skull laughed. Immediately the writhing, puss-dripping abomination froze before screeching fiercely. Daz held his hands up to his ears as he winced.

Not a moment later, the Laughing Skull disappeared and the monster died. It now lay completely still as Hamson cut into it and tore its flesh apart. Daz only stopped the assualt when it was nigh unrecognisable. He did not want to deal with a zombified version of this monster if that was even possible.

Once done, he returned Hamson to its sigil on the back of his palm, ready to summon the powerful tool at a moment's notice.

Exhaling a deep breath of air, Daz smiled a little. 'The skull killed such a powerful monster and with ease too. I don't think it could have done that before the upgrade. Or maybe that creature was particularly weak to the skull since it had no soul?'

Daz didn't know, but regardless, he had completed the Trial of Might with relative ease. He'd been hit once due to his negligence and had failed to really damage the creature before using the skull.

Still, he was holding back by not using his crystals, diamond needles, clones, and Rimmy. He could have also tried out his Archreaper's Aura. If he was forced to fight that monster again he'd certainly use a bit more of his arsenal than he had this time.

"Statement: You have proven your might. You may proceed to Room 3."

Daz nodded and immediately pulled out his hard hat which he'd used to explore Atlantis with. He didn't turn the light on but perhaps its natural hardness would assist him in protecting his eyeballs.

His brain was less of a concern since unless it was completely destroyed, his Lifeforce Dependency paired with his Regeneration stat would keep him safe. Still, it was better to be safe rather than sorry.

He also decided to bring out a chunk of diamonds from his Industrial Storage Box and cut it perfectly with Hamson into a form-fitting mask. Barely a slit was left for his eyes to see through but he preferred that over having them and the rest of his face left exposed.

He glanced at the plain-looking diamond mask and frowned. He spent a few minutes with Hamson's blade shrunk down as much as possible simply carving some designs into the thing.