Obcisor found himself inside a very dense forest.
Similar to the trees outside, the trees in here were also white with spiderwebs all over them.
The spider webs were so densely laid around the trees that they were letting barely any lights into the forest.
It made the whole forest looked like it was forever shrouded in the fog, with the morning never turning to daytime.
Unlike other dungeons he had been to before this one, he couldn't immediately tell which direction he was to go towards.
He decided to walk in a random direction to check and see if there is anything there. He was missing Red Blaze's little scouting mouse at this point.
As soon as he started walking, however, a notification popped up in front of him.
He started getting irritated. He hadn't even started walking and already the dungeon was slowing him.
'Great. First I don't know where to go, and then when I do choose to go somewhere, it doesn't let me get there fast.' He thought.
He continued walking in the same direction again and started noticing just how much slow he was compared to walking normally.
'No wonder the fastest clear is 2 and a half hours. When you don't know where to go and can't even move properly, you are bound to have a very slow clear time.' He thought to himself.
He walked for a while and saw nothing different.
Still, the same big, dense forest covered with spiderwebs letting barely any light in.
Also, he hadn't seen a single spider either.
He was seriously considering taking a U-turn when he started hearing rustling behind one of the trees.
The spider webs attached to the trees started vibrating.
Slowly, a leg appeared from behind the tree, even the thinnest parts as wide as his own thighs.
It kept inching forward and soon the entire spider was in view.
This spider was nearly double the size of the spiders found outside.
[Observe]
[Spiderling: Level 58 5500 HP]
'Damn'. This spiderling's HP was nearly double that of the one outside.
The spiderling slowly turned its head until all eight of its eyes were looking right at him.
As soon as it saw him, it lunged out of the tree, directly on top of him.
Seeing this, Obcisor immediately rolled forward and dodged its body slam The spiderling turned around and ran towards him.
He used [Air Slash] to stop it in it's track.
He then turned his two daggers into one and took out the padded shield. As soon as it was out, without wasting a single moment, he used [Shield Bash]
<[Shield Bash] dealt 576 damage to 'Spiderling'>
<'Spiderling' is stunned for 4 seconds>
The moment it was stunned, he unequipped the shield and split his dagger into two.
Ching. Ching. Ching.
He started stabbing both the daggers into its head.
<[Critical Strike] dealt 69 damage to 'Spiderling'>
<[Consecutive strike] dealt 2 x 52 Damage to 'Spiderling'>
<[Zap] dealt 120 Damage to 'Spiderling'>
.
.
.
The spiderling was strong. its physical defense was way stronger than anything he came across before.
Even its magical defense was pretty good. It was consistently blocking 20% of all magic damage he dealt.
Thankfully, with his split daggers, he could attack twice as much and have a chance to proc [zap] which was a good source of damage.
He backed up as soon as the stun duration was over.
'I can't keep backing away. It shouldn't matter if I get hit. I have a defensive class. I need to go in for a full-on brawl' he rebuked himself.
'Screw it.' He thought and jumped towards the spider's head.
As soon as he reached the spider, he used [Vocal Taunt] and [Bulwark's Revenge].
He started damaging the spider and the spider started damaging him and in doing so damaged itself.
As it was on its deathbed, Obcisor stepped away.
20 seconds was over.
[Observe]
[Spiderling: Level 58
HP:975/5500
MP:3000/3000
STR:400
DEF:400
INT:600
VIT:550
AGI:250]
'What the hell?' Obcisor was shocked to see such a large amount of stats. 'Why is it's INT the largest stat when it doesn't even use a spell?' he was confused.
'Also, it moves so fast, so why is it's AGI only 250. None of this makes sense.' He was truly confused.
'Does it not use its spells why fighting solo? If I remember correctly, the ones outside also had high INT but didn't use any spells. There must be some sort of trigger.' He thought to himself.
'Alright, Focus' he immediately went back to fight once he saw the stats.
The spider fought back too but it did 0 physical damage to Obcisor. Only its poison did damage, but even that didn't last for more than 2 seconds.
Within the next couple of seconds, the spiderling died.
'I need to let go of my fear of taking damage.' He said to himself.
He looked up and around, cocked his head, and said "Which way did I come from?'.
Obcisor thought for a bit and couldn't come up with an answer, so he randomly chose a direction and started walking.
Soon he saw another similar spiderling. He fought with it slowly to confirm whether or not all spiderlings had the same stats or not.
Even though this spiderling was only level 53, it did have the same stats like the one he fought before.
Knowing that he could literally take no physical damage and only the poison, he fought the rest of the spiderlings freely.
[Observe] was really helping him realize the limits of what he could and could not do against other monsters.
An hour later,
He had fought only 6 spiderlings by now. By this point, he had streamlined his fighting pattern.
Start with [Air Slash], followed by the use of [Shield Bash] to stun them for 4 seconds. Hit them for the entirety of the 4 seconds with the split dagger.
As soon as it was out of a stun, taunt it and use [Bulwark's Revenge]. Continue attacking it while it hurts itself in the process of attacking you.
Finally, after [Bulwark's Revenge] was over, use [Bulwark's Healing] to heal whatever HP you lost from its poison, still hitting it without a moment of rest.
By the 20 second mark, the spiderling was sure to be dead.
Another hour later,
Spiderlings were becoming more and more frequent in the forest. There were even times he found two at once. He had fought another 10 spiders by this time.
Another half an hour later,
Finally, after fighting another 8 spiderlings, he found the boss's room.
He had just moments before killed 2 spider guards that were much stronger than the spiderlings but still couldn't deal any damage to him.
His HP was full, Stamina at max and no skills were on cooldown. His level was at early 50.
He hadn't done his class advancement quest, so he wasn't worried about over leveling for the competition.
He looked at the boos' room. He could see the inside from there. 18 large trees surrounding a massive opening on the ground.
He took a deep breath and walked in.