Chapter 21: Ch 21 sweeping the dungeon clean
Klaus looked at his affinity percentage, his chest heaving with exhaustion. It had been a full twenty-four hours since he had slain his first ice golem, and the grind was proving tougher than he’d anticipated. He checked the system panel, his eyes landing on the shimmering number.
[Ice Affinity: 0.07%]
"Huff! It’s much more difficult than I thought," Klaus panted, wiping sweat from his brow despite the biting cold. He had already slain about forty D-rank ice golems, maybe more.
Each one had been absorbed, but after that initial spark of awakening his ice affinity, the progress had slowed to a crawl. With every subsequent absorption, the net percentage increase in affinity had come to a standstill, barely nudging the needle. It was like trying to fill a sea with a faucet.
Klaus now looked at the corpse of a much larger ice golem laid out in front of him. This wasn’t just any golem; this was the boss monster, the undisputed leader of the golems in this gate.
It was a formidable C-rank monster, its icy armor much thicker than normal, its form more imposing than its subordinates.
Yet, defeating it had been surprisingly easy for Klaus.
The combination of his Natural Hunter trait, which helped him track and anticipate, his Swift Step skill for dodging, the fear-inducing Haunt skill, and the sheer power of Stellar Sword Descent had made it a walk in the park.
The boss, for all its might, had been slow, predictable, and ultimately, no match for Klaus’s calculated assault.
Klaus looked at the boss monster one last time before calling out, "Absorb."
In an instant, the massive golem’s body began to shimmer, then dissolve, as if disintegrating into some strange, blue-white energy that flowed directly towards Klaus.