Looking at the wrecked raft, Vayne could only sigh helplessly. It was quite a test of reaction in their fall.
Hundreds of shredding fangs greeted them before ending at some kind of flesh partition that crush everything the creature swallows into a paste.
He and Val only survived because he keeps using the sail and wind spells to keep them in the clear, but now that they passed all that, he wondered what his next move should be.
"Going back up is straight-up suicide, but going deeper inside might not be a good idea either." Weighing the pros and cons of exploring the intestines, he grabs one of the broken wood and light it as a makeshift torch.
"Come on, let's see if there's a way out deeper inside." Gesturing for Val to follow him, they made their way deep into the belly of the creature.
It is a bit hard to walk with the sticky yet slippery meaty floor but with some ice made spikes on their boots it is easily taken care of.
The place gave out the usual putrid smell of meat and there was no illumination other than his torch, the flesh walls that were illuminated by the torch could also be seen contracting from time to time.
Although the place looks desolate and empty other than some debris here and there, he did not let his guard down as his map is showing a lot of hostile entire keeping their distance in the dark and without any target to see, he couldn't scan whatever creature he may face so he chose to try and not aggro them.
As per usual, Val is only quietly following him and bore hole at his back with her gaze while the slime is lazily relaxing in her arms. He could tell that she is on alert as well despite her indifferent look.
The creatures left them alone at first, but as they went deeper some of them come out of the dark and attack them.
The creatures look like a goblin but made completely out of the shadow with two long antennae from their forehead.
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Race: War shadow
Lv: 80
Str: 1,203 | Vit: 1,078 | Agi: 1,553 | Int: 830 | Res: 2,000 | Cha: 0
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The small number that comes at them are easily dispatched but their number keeps growing as they go, some even come in a bigger form called Greater war shadow with stronger physic while sacrificing Agility, there are also fast ones called killer shadow whom sacrifice vitality for agility. But ultimately, none of them provide a challenge to them anymore.
As they go, the walls and tunnels turn from flesh into stone bricks, the path continues until they reach a completely familiar door, the boss room door.
"Sailing both high and low tides, who would have thought that the way up is inside a creature's belly." Dispatching the last of the shadows, he stares at the door with disdain.
Pushing the door open, he didn't hesitate to enter the room and charge at the single shadow entity at the center of the room.
The moment their blade clash, he could get good look at the entity.
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Race: Doppelganger
Lv: 40
Str: ???+??? | Vit: ???+??? | Agi: ???+??? | Int: ???+??? | Res: ???+??? | Cha: ???+???
Skills:
- Mimicry (status)(passive)
- Surpass (passive)
- Shadow territory (active)
——————————————————————
The BOSS is a man-made from shadows with a smiling facemask and a black single-edged blade.
Although having a rather low level, the boss effortlessly blocks, parry, or deflect each strike he gave. Curious he scans its skills.
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Mimicry (status):
Copy the statuses and skills of the first opponent that attacks you, statuses reset after spending 3h outside combat.
Surpass:
Add 20% more attributes of the mimicked statuses.
Shadow territory:
Convert the area around the user into the shadow realm for 30 minutes. -20% all statuses to light attuned entity, +20% all statuses to dark attuned entity, +50% dark elemental damage, +50% damage received to a light attuned entity, spawn 5 war shadows every 30 seconds.
Cooldown 2 hours.
——————————————————————
Surprised at what he saw, he almost fails to block the incoming punch to his guts.
The force of the punch pushes him back a few meters and while his arms are fine, it felt a bit numb from receiving the strike while his sword are completely bent and no longer usable.
While he is strategizing how to take the thing down, Val replaces him and take on the BOSS with the slime turning into some kind of armor on her body, negating any impact from the creature strikes.
While watching from the side, he noticed that even with the status boost, both the BOSS and Val move faster and stronger than he ever did, which could only mean he never had fully utilized his status.
Charging back in, he sends a few sunbeam spells towards the BOSS's back and follow it up with [Blade dance] landing 3 strikes to it's back before jumping back and avoid its retaliation.
Since he's not up to par with the BOSS, he decides to play the role of support, damaging and harassing the BOSS while healing both Val and the slime that is tanking the BOSS.
During the few hours they fight, the BOSS tried to shake off and charge at him a few times but Val is anything but incapable, she would always block its path and regain its aggro by landing a considerable amount of damages from the openings made from Vayne spells harassment.
Unlike before, the BOSS no longer kept it's cool and back away from the constant attack by the duo. It then raises its blade, flips it, then stabs it into the ground and the whole room turned dark.
Deploying [Magelight] around the area, its illumination does not light up the room other than making him and her visible. throwing the extinguished torch aside, he prepares his spells as he could see the outline of the war shadows rising from the floor.
He glances at his status bar before taking out two mana potion and drinks them, restoring his mana back to over 80%. He can't afford to run out of extra Mana since exchange for using spells without much understanding of it he has to pay more mana cost.
While he is doing so he also made a thought for Val to buff up using the potions he made before he too did the same.
He considers it quite wasteful to use consumables like the flame substance, smoke screen, or even the flashbang he used before as the price of their containers is much higher than cheap, fragile potion bottles. But doesn't mean he did not have or make any, and now these will come in handy to reduce his Mana cost and casting time.
Dispatching the minions is easy but from within the darkness, the BOSS flips the table as it would show up from time to time and harasses the duo with spells or battle skills. The worse part of it wasn't the buff or debuff they received but because the BOSS was able to use battle arts that he was still only learning!
With the numbers of minions and the BOSS harassment, the duo struggled to survive the thirty minutes, expanding a lot of their items in the process.
Being a hoarder in most games he played, Vayne almost shed a tear from the expenditure and direct his anger at the BOSS once his skill entered cool down.
It seems the boss was also healed while he was hiding as most of its injuries are already gone but it is soon replaced with new ones as Vayne completely disregards defense and safety to deal damages and vent his frustration at it while being backed by Val.
"If he were to lose items then might as well use them." He thought before using the substances he places in his inventory for use.
Being thrown random substance without caring, the BOSS is hit by ranging effects from toxic fumes, sticky liquid flames, frozen over, slowed down, blinded, or even being glued to the floor by sticky slimes.
Although it has better statuses and skills, it did not have the plethora of items the duo have nor a partner to help it in time of need.
In the end, Val and Vayne ended the BOSS's live with a combined attack, the sad form of the BOSS then burst into particles as the duo sat down with their back against each other, catching their breath.
"I don't know what sick joke was that Dungeon master had in mind but this dungeon is messed up. Why have weak bosses for the advance floors but a strong one on the early floor?" He said after a short break.
"It might be to give the idea that the advance floors will be even stronger, master," Val answered as she adjusts her position into a more comfortable one.
"That could be true but can you not call me master? Just call me Vayne." He casually suggested while looking through his inventory and calculate his losses. He could only sigh as his hoarder heartaches.
"Vein?" She asked unsurely.
"No, Vayne." He corrected
"Van?" She asks again
"No, it's Vayne." He corrected again, turning to face her.
"...Fei?" This time she asks with a pitiful look.
"...call me whatever suits you then." Relenting to the look, he admits defeat.
"Un, I shall call you Feifei then." She said with a rare bright smile. A smile that captivated him for a moment.
They then spent the rest of their break in comfortable silence.