Jake, Lana, and Louise quickly returned to the Fire Slimes map after having their lunch. Although Jake only had been on that map a couple of times, he was already sick of it. It was time to clear the dungeon, obtain the special class and then move on to more difficult places to hunt.
"I will open the path by myself. Meanwhile, you guys rest as much as possible," Jake said.
"I am fine," Lana said. "Rather than that, I always get too relaxed after lunch, so I am getting sleepy."
"I think you are too young to become like that, Lana," Louise forced a smile.
They sure looked relaxed, considering that it was their first time clearing a dungeon in any game. While that was good, it was also unexpected. Jake recalled the first time and participated in such an event… and then he recalled that he didn't get nervous at all. He was supposed to feel like that since it was his first time in a VRMMORPG, after all.
In any case, they entered the dungeon and noticed that they could find red crystals that emitted high amounts of heat in some parts of it. Even when Jake touched one of them, he suffered a lot of damage. They probably couldn't be taken from the walls… still. They sure were making the place's interior more illuminated and very hot. Jake noticed that even his gloves lost some durability… trying to use his weapon to get that would only cause problems for him.
Inside the dungeon, Jake noticed that the Fireballs of the slimes got bigger, and the power of Louise's Ice Arrow decreased considerably. Despite that, they moved onward without complaining. Truth to be told, Jake wasn't the only one who was tired of that map.
After a couple of minutes, they found the final part of the dungeon. It was a pretty large area that was the size of a large stadium. In the center of that place, they found a huge fire slime that was emitting a lot of flames on its back. The monster was like five meters tall, long and wide, and its presence was making the air vibrate.
Ancient Fire Slime Lv 50
Health: 5000/5000
Mana: 5000/5000
Stamina: 5000/5000
Jake frowned when he saw those statuses. The creature couldn't even be compared to the other slimes… it was almost one hundred and fifty times stronger, at least when it comes to its energy. Despite that, the idea of retreating never passed across their minds.
"Here is what we are going to do: as usual, I will attack from up close, and you guys will offer me support from the backline," Jake said. "However, I can't just put my feet on the ground and act like a wall against the boss. I will have to move around to avoid being damaged by the big attacks, so you guys will have to follow me. If I go to the right, you move to the right, and so on."
"It is a rather boring plan," Lana said.
"If you have any better ideas, I am all ears," Jake said.
"I think to keep things simple will be better. Otherwise, it might cause problems," Louise said.
"I suppose," Lana shrugged.
"It seems I can attack from here. Should I do it?" Louise asked.
"I have a feeling it won't work, but you are free to try," Jake replied.
Truth to be told, Louise also felt that, but she wanted to try anyway. The power of her Ice Arrows would decrease while attacking first, but that wasn't the only problem. When Louise fired her Ice Arrow, the heat emitted by the monster made the attack decrease in size so much that when it hit it, it only caused five points of health. As if that wasn't enough, the attack forcefully pushed those three to the last part of the dungeon.
Despite the surprise, those three quickly assumed their positions. Jake approached the slime, and the creature immediately opened its mouth and breathed a wave of fire. Jake rolled to the side to dodge the attack, and he succeeded, but the heat alone made him sweat and lose of his health. Lana healed him, so he dashed yet again after getting up. Before he could get close, he fired Mana Blade toward the monster's eyes. The creature used the same attack to block it, but Louise decreased the power by stealing the mana of the attack, so Jake's attack landed. In the next moment, and Ice Arrow also hit the monster and made it flinch.
Jake used that chance to approach and then stab the monster's face, but the heat emitted by the creature prevented him from approaching. He couldn't even keep his eyes open.
"Shit… Maybe I should have leveled up Fire Resistance a bit more," Jake thought.
Melee attacks won't do with his level of defense. So, Jake kept running to his right side and fired Mana Blade several times to damage the massive creature. At some point, the slime began to jump to turn around, and that made the entire dungeon tremble. Nevertheless, Jake eventually found a purple crystal behind the creature, and it was very similar to the crystal server.
"The hell…" Jake muttered, surprised.
With his speed, Jake could easily outrun the slime, but he quickly ran out of mana, and his stamina was also decreasing. Not to mention, he also noticed that Lana and Louise were having a hard time keeping up with him. Even without looking, Jake noticed that the Ice Arrows stopped coming.
"I suppose it can't be helped…" Jake muttered while he was grabbing a mana potion.
Jake was planning to attack more, but it seemed that he would have to leave that for Louise. At least until his Fire Resistance increases a little bit, but he couldn't see any progress in that skill… Nevertheless, he grabbed his Kanata and scabbard to protect his face against the next wave of flames.