Yolen Arcanum
The interior of the tower was home to larger, more fearsome demons than the balgura and the Cako Demons outside. In here were Krugr and Yohuloths, four armed beasts and medusa-like demons. By climbing up the tower and clearing the whole maze I didn't have much left to do other than kill the boss.
DUNGEON QUEST - TOWER OF SIN
OBJECTIVE:
DEFEAT 200 DEMONS - 192/200
COLLECT LOOT FROM FOUR CHESTS - 3/4
SLAY THE DUNGEON BOSS, LORD MAOU - 0/1
REWARDS:
+60 ABILITY POINTS
+20 TO ALL STATS
+5 SKILL POINTS
DUNGEON SPECIFIC ARTIFACT
DARK LOOT BOX
Due to my massive progress, I had leveled up numerous times. To a high level of 62, when I reached level 50 I had unlocked a new job skill. Spell conversion, which, if I leveled it up to 100 I would be immune to all spells, now though, I was immune to one percent of a spell.
"THWAK"
I smashed my mana enhanced fist down on the head of a four armed demon, destroying the skull and ending its life.
YOU HAVE SLAIN - KRUGR
I sat down on the chest at the corner of the square room I was in. There were numerous demon corpses on the floor, strewn headless or missing various sections of their body from my skill.
"Time to put some points in."
I opened my stat screen.
NAME - YOLEN ARCANUM
RACE - FALLEN
LVL - 62
HP - 217,000
HP/s - +2,100
MP - 120,652(482,608)
MP/s - +600(3000)
JOB - MANA WEAVER
INDIVIDUAL SKILL - GENESIS/DESOLATION
STR - 101
AGI - 121
CON - 125
INT - 139
FTH - 22
ABILITY POINTS (156)
SKILL POINTS (0)
And distributed my points.
NAME - YOLEN ARCANUM
RACE - FALLEN
LVL - 62
HP - 217,000
HP/s - +2,200
MP - 169,260(677,040)
MP/s - +850(4,250)
JOB - MANA WEAVER
INDIVIDUAL SKILL - GENESIS/DESOLATION
STR - 122
AGI - 200
CON - 125
INT - 195
FTH - 22
ABILITY POINTS (0)
SKILL POINTS (0)
I then stood up, happy with my stats, and opened the chest beneath me. Inside was a small stone with a rune carved in to the top.
RUNE STONE - +15 SKILL POINTS
IF CRUSHED THIS STONE WILL GRANT 15 SKILL POINTS TO THE ONE WHO CRUSHED IT.
"Yes please." I grinned, easily crushing it under my hand.
A golden light burst from in between my fingers and I looked up at my stat screen.
SKILL POINTS (15)
It was true, my grin spread across my face as I decided to wait until I had the full amount in hand.
Turning to search for my final few demons I set off.
--
The moment the demon count reached 200 I immediately turned my attention to the flow of mana, searching for the boss. Due to my boost in skill level I could easily see the power of the being the mana was flowing to. The fight would be a good one.
Zooming through the tower at blistering speeds, I made my way to the top where a large circular room, taking up the full of the interior of this floor of the tower and more upwards. It was almost pitch black and I knew that it would be impossible to see in there without a light source or my perfect vision. Stood atop the slope leading to a trophy wall was a large demon, that looked like it was made of charcoal with small holes in that burned a blood red from the inside. Two massive horns stretched from its head as it stared down at me.
I pushed my nerves down and absorbed the mana in the air of the chamber, immediately time slowed down and my skin began glowing faintly. I then pulled two globes of mana down to my hands at my sides.
The demon looked down at me with eyes that burned with hatred as well as literally. It's smooth mask of a face twisted in rage as it crouched. Then launched itself forwards towards me. Even with my increased speed, I barely had time to avoid the demon's attack when it swiped at me, it then swiftly turned around, it's face splitting in two down the middle, letting loose a column of flames in my direction, they flew at me with ferocious speed and washed over me. The heat was immense and I could feel my skin burning off.
"Hang on." I focused and noticed that I wasn't burning, in fact, the heat wasn't nearly as hot as I had thought, it was kinda warm.
I checked my stat screen for a second and spotted the line that I was looking for.
100% RESISTANCE TO FIRE DAMAGE
I grinned, holding both palms out in front of me and turning the mana orbs into two magical beam spells.
The fire stopped as the demon sensed it's immanent danger.
I unleashed the beams.
--
Rn'd Golnor
The leader of the party stared up at the tower as they were moving cautiously through the maze beneath it. Each time they came across a demon it was already a corpse, some had clear damage due to magic bullets but their power was far above what the party's level 93 Elementalist could conjure up. Most had bludgeoning damage evident on their broken exoskeletons or shattered bones, some of those had sections of their bodies missing with strange lines of black stretching close to the missing sections.
The Elementalist, Helena, stood up from examining a corpse with these strange markings.
"I think this is the evidence of a skill, Rn'd." She said, righting her casting hat.
"Hmm," Rn'd had never heard of a skill that could degrade or destroy parts of a monster's flesh. "I don't know, Helena, maybe it's a spell you don't know?"
"I don't think so, it just feels. Different."
Rn'd thought on that.
"Alright, I'll trust your judgement."
Helena nodded, then abruptly stopped.
"There is a massive concentration of mana in the top of the tower." She said, looking worried.
"That'll be the boss then."
"No, it's gotten larger, the boss is powerful but I've never seen such high magical power in one place."
"Maybe the boss has been buffed, it's not unh-"
A massive beam of light burst from the side of the tower, destroying it's wall with a low hum. The beams then spun to the side, clearing out more than half of the tower wall.
"Holy-" Rn'd started.
The half of the top section of the tower crumbled and fell down into the maze, sending a wave of dust and dirt through the maze.
Through the large gap a massive, hulking demon with large horns could be seen.
"Was that the boss?" One of the party shouted up while shielding his eyes from the dust.
"No, that was that man." Helena pointed as a figure, cloaked in black but glowing white with yellow lights for eyes underneath walked forwards, two small orbs floating above his outstretched hands.
"What is that in his hands?" Rn'd asked.
"That's, that's pure mana, I've never seen such a large collection before." Said the awestruck Helena.
The figure unleashed another beam, this time it struck the demon in the leg, completely vaporising the limb as it leapt down into the maze.
An immense heat spread through the pathways once a large thump sounded. The figure at the top of the tower leapt into the air, staying there.
"He's creating more orbs of mana." Helena called from her cover spot.
Rn'd saw the figure in the air with numerous small glowing orbs popping into existence around him.
A low hum built up, then turned into a noise that shook the very ground as more than ten of those devastating beams thundered towards where the boss must've been. The figure clenched his fists in frustration and then a pillar of blood red flames shot up from the ground in retaliation, bathing the figure in a crimson inferno.
A strong impact sounded as the floor shook once and the flames cut out at the same time.
--
Yolen Arcanum
LEVEL UP!
LEVEL UP!
LEVEL UP!
YOU HAVE SLAIN - LORD MAOU
DUNGEON QUEST COMPLETE
LEVEL UP!
LEVEL UP!
LEVEL UP!
LEVEL UP!
LEVEL UP!
+60 ABILITY POINTS
+20 TO ALL STATS
+5 SKILL POINTS
DUNGEON SPECIFIC ARTIFACT FOUND
DARK LOOT BOX EARNED
I floated gently over to the edge of the massive crater I had made.
'That boss was definitely harder than the last, it must've had a really high agility score as well.'
I landed at the floor and let go of a lot of the mana I was holding, watching the glow I was emitting under my cloak fade as the mana flowed away. I then accepted the loot box and the artifact.