The monster had its weak spot exposed, so Soma could easily take it out this time.
Unlike the rest of its body, where the reverse scale for this monster was made it was almost impossible for it to turn away in time once it was being attacked.
Icy Jewel took care of the rest for Soma, and he breathed a sigh of relief once the room turned green. It indicated that Soma had cleared this floor after much struggle.
Floors 15-17 were much more straightforward to go through, and then it came time to go through floor 18 and the boss inside.
-Grrrrr
Soma jumped back in time before he would be cut by the large axe heading toward his head.
"I got extremely lucky to dodge that attack. I would have lost my head if I had not dodged this attack."
The axe moved and suddenly flew toward the humanoid figure inside the room.
The armour made clicking noises as it headed toward the centre of the room and slammed its axe hard on the floor, causing it to shake.
The boss monster of Floor 18 looked intimidating, but the unnerving part of him was the humanoid-looking body it possessed.
Most participants had not faced a humanoid opponent at this point.
So suddenly, going against such a figure would cause them to falter.
3 out of 10 people usually stopped climbing the tower because they could not take the guilt of killing humans.
9 out of 10 people also struggled when they started the initial climb of the tower because of their guilt of killing other humans and intelligent creatures.
Soma had gotten over his paranoia of killing intelligent creatures long ago, so he was not as hesitant.
Still, the black-coated armour made Soma hesitate to enter the room outright.
Soma decided to test the amour's tricks by attacking it.
He connected a knife with his strings and threw it toward the living armour in the middle of the room.
He intended to pull the string back once the armour moved, but it moved too fast for Soma to react in time.
The knife struck the ground as soon as Soma's control over it went off.
He sighed in annoyance but made no move to retrieve the knife from the floor.
Soma observed the situation for five more minutes before he stepped inside the room.
The axe came his way when Soma stepped on the floor and pulled back.
It was time to revise the strategy, and Soma decided to grab a dagger and stick it hard into the wall to use it to levitate himself.
The undead armour did not attack Soma and extended his hand inside, so he decided to take this opportunity to extend his hand further and bring his body.
Touching the walls did not cause the boss to notice Soma, and he decided to utilise this strategy to its maximum potential.
Soma used the wall as a grip and clutched the Icy Jewel tightly.
He would get only one chance to attack before he had to go back to the defensive.
Soma would aim for this amour's weak spots during those attacks.
[Mind's eye has activated. You can now see the enemy's weak spots.]
Soma only had one shot to attack, and he aimed all his mana into his sword and lunged forward.
The sudden influx of mana caused the undead knight to look up, and it noticed Soma.
Thankfully, Soma was fast enough to break apart the knight's guard before it attacked Soma back, and his spear pierced the undead knight.
The knight's body fell apart, but the room had not turned green yet.
Soma kept his guard up and instantly pulled his foot back as soon as he felt the undead knight reaching for his leg.
-Stomp
Kicking down as hard as he could, Soma somehow freed himself and quickly got as far out of range as possible.
The tattered knight began to build itself back up slowly, and it reached toward Soma.
Thankfully, Soma had already stepped outside the door, and the undead knight stopped moving.
[Boss HP: 950/1350]
Soma had attacked the boss heads-on without any preparation, and he had been able to take away 400 HP from the boss.
At this rate, he needed to attack thrice more with the same intensity, and he could finish it off.
However, Soma needed to be more content with his current skill level.
He wanted to finish this fight in under two attempts if possible.
Soma concentrated his energy but did not have enough mana to command.
Despite having the title of Master of Mana manipulation, Soma's actual Mana skills were below 40.
That meant he could easily run out of Mana at a crucial time.
Soma developed his technique when he had much more mana than he currently had.
As a result, cultivating his technique was not something he had to worry about.
But currently, Soma has a limited amount of mana.
"Shopkeeper, I need to buy something from you. Are you there?"
Soma called out to the tiny fairy, always hovering around people in hopes of earning profit from the players.
The fairy appeared as soon as Soma called for it.
"What can I help you with, my dear customer?"
The fairy asked in an eager voice.
Despite how much Soma abused these tiny creatures, their greed for money kept them coming back to him.
"I want you to give me mana supplements. I will buy a whole crate from you."
Soma made the request, and the fairy was more than happy to supply him with his demand.
"Of course, mister. Here you go…your supply of the best mana supplements. Are you going to take all of them in one go?"
The fairy asked curiously, and Soma quickly swatted it away.
"That is for me to know."
The fairy wanted to stick around and find out more, but someone else must have called for the shopkeeper, so the fairy quickly escaped.
Soma put one of the mana supplements in his mouth and chewed it.
The glass-like surface of the marble proved to be difficult to chew through.
It was hard to the point where Soma felt his gums hurting.
But he chewed through the thing like a madman until it chewed through.
[Mana supplement has started working. The rate of your mana recovery will increase by 100%.]
Soma took a deep breath, and even his breath felt full of mana.
He was brimming with energy, and the feeling of having so much of it was addicting.
Many people got addicted to these Mana supplements mainly because of how much of a rush they gave the user.
Even a regular like Soma was not immune to the addiction that was Mana supplements.
With the supplements in play, Soma couldn't hide his aura anymore.
The undead armour looked at Soma with an interested glance as soon as it noticed Soma approaching it.
The armour became agitated, and the giant axe approached Soma's face.
He dodged it because of the access energy in his system.
His excessive mana overflowed into Icy Jewel, creating an icy shield in front of Soma.
The axe connected with the ice, causing the shards to explode around Soma's face.
Many of those shards hit Soma's face, and it made him bleed.
The rush of mana flowing through his veins caused Soma to ignore those shards hitting him, and his face had a disturbing grin when he looked at the undead armour.
'Don't enjoy this combat and do not get used to it. You cannot let the thrill of this moment get to you.'
Soma reminded himself repeatedly, but he could feel his heart pumping faster.
The axe came at him hard; it would have been safer for Soma to ignore it.
But instead, Soma tried to test his limit, and he tested his skills and decided to intercept that axe in its way.
Since Soma did not have enough time to bring his sword up, he used his strings instead.
He held many of them and coated them in mana to block the axe.
Both powers collided, and Soma flinched at the impact.
He realised that he had been getting ahead of himself by trying to take on the undead general this openly.
The boss flung Soma backwards, causing him almost to lose his balance.
Soma noticed when the boss jumped high and brought the axe down directly on top of Soma.
[Angel of Agility activated]
[Swift step activated]
[Master of Stealth activated]
Soma could barely escape in time, even with all his abilities, and he headed toward the free side.
He crossed the threshold, and the undead knight returned to its original position.
"Alright, so that was no one of my brightest moments. I will have to return to my original plan now."
Soma sighed before he clutched his sword.
It was time to return to his initial strategy of hitting the enemy as hard as possible.
With the mana supplements in his system, Soma would be able to perform better than before.