"Why should I fear demons, when they should fear me."
Whatever, you Chuuni.|
"I mean it, seriously." I said as I stepped into the huge chamber. And in the centre if the chamber stood a furry rotting giant with a bull skull for a head.
It was 7 m (almost 23 ft) tall, only a bit taller than a giraffe. The trunk of its body had long thick long fur. But elbows and thighs down, there was no fur. Just pale skin.
Adding to that, its forearms and legs had huge gashes surrounded by necrotic tissue.
It had quite a few bony stubs emerging on its torso. As said before, it had something like a bull skull as the head. Only it had 4 demon horns and alot of fur on the back of its head.
(Check this image for description.
https://images.app.goo.gl/77Pem9c3C6qaBrpw6
Just reduce its size to 7 m (giraffe height), and remove the broken skull on shoulder.)
It was kind of gruesome but all in all, it was a cool looking monster.
I could tell that it was stronger than the average monsters we faced outside, but I could still kill it easily if I used
So I decided to just stick with using the skills passively.
It seems that he's ready to attack. Too bad that he's gone mad from centuries of ensealment. He cant even make simple words, hes just making guttural roars.
He lunged at me immediately, brandishing his huge claws.
"Poor guy...", I muttered as I jumped high into the air.
In a flash of a second, he had struck where I stood. He looked up, he had noticed that I dodged.
His mad eyes, full of hunger, were glaring at me.
Just because you're big and strong doesn't mean you can look down on me. I'm no prey, I'm a predator.
I smiled back at him, with my own mad eyes.
As I began to fall from my jump, I drew the dagger.
'I guess I'll use a little bit more of my skills than just leaving them passive.'
I activated [Dark Skeleton Chimera Reinforcement]. At the same time the Dzoavits swung his other claw and I slashed down with the dagger.
He screamed at the loss of a finger.
Other than being a horror movie monster, the Dark Skeleton Chimera has immense strength and is capable of morphing its anatomy (flesh and bones, etc).
And last but not least, it can use a dark miasma which can be solidified and fluidized at will. It could be changed into different forms and the solidified forms can be morphed aswell.
A powerful creature indeed, so many options open up with these abilities. Such as layering a blade with miasma in addition to using Aura.
Immediately the felled finger started corroding because of the miasma.
"Oh yeah, I forgot that it had corrosive attribute."
He slashed with his other claw in anger. I didn't dodge this time, I decided to take it head on.
*crash* *rumble*
I was flung into the wall of the chamber. I was flung so hard that the wall caved.I had to push my way out of the rubble.
As soon as I got out, he delivered another hit. He smashed down with both arms.
*boom*
The whole chamber rumbled. When he lifted his arms, there was dust everywhere. Even the tunnel couldn't be seen through the thick clouds of dust.
Such a strong impact.
I admit that I underestimated him. Maybe because I was facing extremely weak mobs up till now.
But I don't regret this one bit, I instead welcome this situation. It just means things are more fun than I expected.
Before the dust settled, I jumped towards the Dzoavits with great force and punched him in the chest.
*boom*
*crash*
With a sonic boom, he was lifted off his feet. Now it was his turn to be flung around.
I had tested its strength. But the warm up was over now. I held the dagger in reverse grip and took a stance.
"Its showtime."
He lunged at me with even greater speed than before. His eyes glowing red from rage.
I activated my skills, but not all of the power.
I jumped on to the claw that was about to ram me and then jumped off it towards its eye.
I flew by his eye.
But I didnt miss.
I had cut it as I flew by, in a straight horizontal line.
"Stop screaming gibberish!"
Seriously, his nonsense was getting annoying.
I landed on his back and tightly held on his fur.
He felt me and started shaking violently.
"Is it time for Sh*d*w *f th* C*l*ssus already? Where's W*nder?"
Mana began to circulate on his skin and then entered the fur. He was using a skill. I jumped off.
Instantly his fur stood up and hardened as if huge sharp needles had pierced out of his skin.
It was like a pin-cushion with no space left, only it was giant and the needles were pointed outwards. I would've skewered if I had stuck around.
But this wasn't the end. Instantly, the needles became orange hot and sparked.
And from his knees and elbows onward, flames and smoke spewed out. The gashes on his forearms and legs began to glow and shift, forming symbols and mystical designs.
The skull became black and his claws grew longer. Even his cut off finger and damaged eye healed. Hell, he even became larger, about 10 m or so. Thank goodness, the chamber was huge.
This was a
But unlike his trait, this was on a whole other level. I mean come on, this beast was breathing fire at me. Literally, he inhaled deep and started spewing flames and smoke. I began to dodge the attack, jumping around the whole chamber.
The whole interior was covered with flames. And with no outlet for the smoke and flames, we would run out of breathable air.
It was mad, but it wasn't stupid. It should've known the consequences. Did it feel its life in danger when fighting me?
I guess I'll never know cause he's too far gone to even think now.
Thankfully I had high affinity with fire due to my skill [Fire-Salamander Reinforcement], but still breathing would become a problem.
This was a headache. Now I had to cut my battle in short to prevent the chamber from crumbling and to prevent death by suffocation.
I had to end this now. While I kept dodging the fire breath, I sheathed my dagger but drew the greatsword attached to my back. This was the Goblin Ancestor's Sword.
It was stronger and had had a side ability that increased the user's strength too. But the reason I pulled this out was that it could build up more Aura and energy than the dagger.
I activated my skills fully. I even activated 'transformation' for all of them.
I turned into the Skeleton Chimera from before, only now I had more armor and another set of arms.
The flesh/ muscle mass had increased and was much denser tha before. And the the arms now ended in claws too.
I was covered with thick lighy green scales and there were tiny spines among the scales too. Immediately, my muscles swole up even more.
This the result of the fusion of the
Base of the Skeleton Chimera, scales and claws of the Fire-Salamander and the increased strength and toughness of the Goblin King.
In this form I continued to dodge. He was breathing out flames constantly, that means he would eventually stop to breath in.
Whether a demon or any other race, one has to breath. Of course skeletons and similar undead are exceptions.
Wait, doesn't that also mean that I too can live without air when I use the Skeleton Chimera transformation?
Back to the battle, when he finally stopped the blast of fire for some air, I landed in a spot where the fire wasn't burning as much.
I gathered immense amount of miasma and mana on the blade and gave it a solid form. I even added the fire attribute from the Fire -Salamander skill.
But I didnt bind this amalgam of energies with the blade. I held the blade above my head.
And before the Dzoavits could breathe out flames again, I slashed straight down.
A straight vertical line was drawn. And then, a flaming black and crimson wave filled that line.
The Dzoavits split right down the middle, and started burning.
The flames and the corrosive miasma worked together to incinerate the corpse.
The spreading miasma also began to kill the fires created from the Dzoavits' breath.
*ding* ding* ding*
I ignored the system messages and focus on the events that took place.
What happened was that I had kept the aura blade in an unstable form so that it could be released as a wave of energy rather than remain bound on the blade surface.
First, the aura itself traversed the trajectory of the slash, cutting the Dzoavits in half.
Then the energy stored in the aura blade and the attributes spread out and filled the gap. They made sure that target was dead.
That attack was quite powerful for someone in the so-called tutorial.
But..
"Its not enough....."
I transformed back to normal.
Only a few moments had passed since my attack. The flames had died down, the corpse had been reduced to a skeleton due to the corrosion. Well, even the skeleton was being disintegrated.
There were 2 skill stones floating above the ground infront of the skeleton. Smoke, ash and dust were still stagnant in the air.
I did have some fun.
But I cant help feel remorse that I had to kill him so quick.
But, again, it doesn't matter so much.
His condition might've been pitiable.
He might've been starved half to death and had gone mad.
But he was someone I had to kill.
The system would give a reward for it.
For me to grow– this was necessary.
Ofcourse, I wont kill anything and everything because the system said so.
But I will kill when I want to or need to, given the circumstances.
But, still I felt a little down that the battle ended too quickly.
Oh well, there'll be more chances in the future.
More exciting battles to fight, more things to discover.
Excluding the tutorial, there are 6 different worlds– the 5 zones and then the Ruined World. Even the tutorial is far from finished.
So much left to explore.
I'll definitely be able to enjoy more.
*ding*
"You have Conquered the Secret Trial"
"You recieved 25,000 points. For solo-kill you gained additional 5,000 points"
"You gained the [Dzoavits Essence Armor Set] (C)"
"You levelled up. You became lvl.45."
I was 'conquering' alot of trials lately. I even gained a rank C armor set.
I guess it would've taken longer to kill the Dzoavits in normal cases.
Considering how the armor is rank C, I guess it's safe to assume that the Dzoavits was atleast C rank.
I just used a D rank and 2 E rank skill to kill a C rank monster.
It shouldn't make sense should it?|
Ms.Fairy was back. Before the fight began she had disappeared. But now she was lying on my hair again, although she seemed a bit angry.
"Actually, it does. Remember I used alot of aura in this battle."
Which is too early for the tutorial!!!|
"What can I do? It's not my fault I'm more capable than my peers."
The fact that it's true, hurts even more.|
Ms.Fairy lamented.
"It also depends on how skills are used too. There is alot more potential there too."
Ms.Fairy didn't reply. Instead she snapped her fingers.
"Trial # 5"
"You have Conquered the 5th Trial."
"You Killed all the Shamans. You gained 10,000 points. You triggered the Secret Trial and survived, gained additional 10,000 point. The Gods give you an additional 5,000 points."
"You recieved [Vile Eye] (C)"
"You recieved title [Destroyer]"
"..."
I cleared another main trial by accident.
"Shamans..... They were guys hiding underneath the chamber, weren't they."
Back when I was dodging the flame breath, I had stepped on a wooden trapdoor or something. It must've lead underground to a bunker of some sorts.
Of course I couldn't investigate it as the flame breath was following me. The flames must've spread burnt through the door to the inside of the bunker.
They must've either burnt alive or were suffocated to death.
Ms.Fairy nodded.
Yes.|
Well, what's done is done.
"What's the next trial?"
You'll see it when the time comes.|
"Ok, how long is the Tutorial?"
A 15 days. The first day ends in 2 hours.|
At the rate I'm finishing trials, I'll end up with nothing to do for the next 90 days.
Dont worry, the difficulty increases immensely from this point onwards. Plus there are dungeons and secrets too.|
She's right about that. There is a lot more to discover in just the tutorial too.
But for now, this much should be enough for the first day.
Glossary:
• Chuuni : Chuunibyou, 8th grader syndrome, edgy kid, etc
• Aura/Aura Blade : Energy blade, ki blade, etc
• Dzoavits : The Dzoavits was demon/ogre in Shoshonean mythology who stole the sun and kidnapped children. He is associated with volcanism and cannibalism.
Note : As the Dzoavits in mythology stole the sun, the secret trial had a condition that the sun wont rise (it will saty night) till the Dzoavits is killed.
Also, its abilities in the novel are related to its association with volcanism.