Part 2: E-rank Boss {Golden-eyed Chimera}
Outside the dungeon, one of the military men asked the other, while looking at the portal.
"Do you think the Hunters have ended up like the others?"
The second soldier, without shifting his watch from the front, replied, "Well, an hour has passed. It's hard to believe they are alive by now."
Inside, Lee Seung stretched his towards the dead serpent. Mysteriously, thick azure lights travelled from the monster to his hand.
His expression turned into excitement.
"Whoa!"he said as his lips curled into a smile.
As the light dimmed, he believed he had completely absorbed the monster's mana. He then walked towards the other end, and he stopped before his replicas.
Their bodies were gradually fading into the air and they had started losing their forms.
'I can't imagine how dangerous this dark dungeon will become without them. I had quickly resurrected them,' Seung thought as he stretched his hand at the two clones.
Just as earlier, the azure light transferred to their bodies, one after the other.
The screen opened up before Lee Seung.
[Clones' energies]
[200 out of 200]
It was then he noticed that their energy capacity had increased by one hundred. So, he assumed that his own would have increased by two hundred.
"I think my strength is double my replicas' " he said.
The two figures of his clones rose from the ground. Then the three of them ventured further into the dungeon.
At a narrow pathway, they encountered a set of ash-bodied giant spiders. As one of the monsters descended to Seung, he leapt over it and slashed its body apart, effortlessly.
Therefore, he deduced that the spiders were just minor nuisances existing to overwhelm intruders.
Not in the world was he going to allow such to happen when he knew they had the dungeon boss to defeat.
Boss Monsters are the most powerful and often the most intelligent creatures within the dungeon. They typically serve as rulers, exerting control over lesser monsters and defending the dungeon's treasures.
Lee Seung had not much clue why there wasn't a boss in the F-rank dungeon he hunted in couple of weeks ago: maybe because there wasn't any treasure in it.
This was no time to think too much. Most importantly, the giant spiders were crawling fastly towards them.
'Activate Shadow Manipulation!'
The Shadow Blade started to glow with lightning -like light, Seung's face reflecting it.
Shadow umbras emanated in the midst of the descending spiders; these umbras could be seen attacking the monsters, with the glow of the blade in Seung's hand.
The summoner and his clones stepped over the dead monsters, walking deeper inside the dungeon.
Even though they encountered more monsters, it wasn't long before they defeated them all.
Step...
Swoosh...
Hiss...
"Stop, guys," Lee Seung said. His eyes scanned the surroundings. He thought, 'What's with the weird sensation? The air has grown very very thicker and... D*mn it, why's the metallic scent so concentrated here?? Have we reached the BOSS chamber?!'
There was an open entrance before them. This had a kind of glowing crystals at its tapings.
Lee Seung stepped on the sandy surface, hearing them crunch beneath his feet. He got close to the entrance, continuing staring at the tapings.
'Is this...?'
Bang!
"What's that?" He whispered. The ground shook with the loud sound of something dropping.
What's inside?
Who dropped something?
Was the boss monster really inside?
Seung's mind raced with these questions. His heart beat fastly when he noticed that the inside was very bright unlike other parts of the dungeon.
'The boss may be the strongest in this dungeon. But, it's still an E-ranker.'
Seung straightened his back and walked through the entrance.
'Why will I be scared of a relatively weak monster? Bring it on, I can't wait for more fun.'
His feet immediately clutched to the ground, as if frozen at that instant.
"What the hell..."
Wham!
He was kicked by a long scaly part...
"Kheok....ahh!"
...and his body slammed against the crystalline wall.
* * *
In the Dongwon Guild, Kang Wonsik, the head of Evaluation Department, stood before the guildmaster's table.
"Has Choi Minho given you a call since that day?"the guildmaster, a man with chubby cheeks, asked him.
"Not at all, guildmaster," Kang Wonsik replied with modesty. His hands were wrapped at his back, showing respect to the man. As the guildmaster sighed out in frustration, he asked, "Sir, are you really going to sue him if he fails to pay by the ending of this week?"
"I believe that he won't want to rejoin the guild so he's most likely to pay back his loan," said the guildmaster. "Just wait for him to turn up, then the suspense would be over."
"Noted, sir," Kang Wonsik said, bowing his head.
Inside the dungeon , the duplicates helped Lee Seung up from the ground. On turning his glance at the front, he couldn't help but get extremely shocked.
Dozens of human dead bodies littered around a creature, not even dozens but hundreds. The deceased humans were undoubtedly Hunters who lost their lives when faced with the boss monster.
The beast was a hybrid creature with the body of a lion, the wings of a dragon, and the tail of a serpent, embodying the chaotic nature of creation.
The display on the screen above its head was Golden-eyed Chimera.
Just at the moment, Lee Seung realised the chamber was built in crystals.
'Aren't these mana crystals? Being the boss is something too, huh?'
"Yagrhh!"the dungeon boss roared.
Swish...
A strong breeze blew across the three adventures, although they didn't move an inch. Their eyes burned with fierce determination.
"You have to be stronger than this in order to defeat the three of us! I mean...I am gonna kick your BUTT!" Lee Seung said loudly, walking forward.
In an instant, the clones engaged the monster. Seung wasn't scared of the monster, but he didn't expect it to be this weak and easy to bypass. It's ironic to call it the supreme controller, considering its weakness.
He then rolled up his dagger. It got to a point when the weapon rolled at an incredible speed and he couldn't even see it moving.
'The points added to my stats when my clones levelled up is actually something...'
His eyes shifted to the corpses littered around, when he heard the buzzing of flies. He believed they were as strong as him, yet got killed by the boss.
However, he wasn't going to suffer the same fate when he had a score to settle with all monsters.
Seung flung the dagger at the beast and it dashed to its head. Irrespective of hierarchy, the weak spot of monsters is the head. The only difference is the amount of force needed to hit the spot — Seung believed the amount he applied was enough....
His eyes widened in shock. He stuttered and said, "The dagger bounced off?"
He stared at the weapon as it dropped back in front of him, completely astonished. Glancing at the monster's head, it was as unwounded as before.
Sigh...
Meanwhile, the Chimera was still struggling with the clones who were attacking violently.
"I am going to create a blind spot on the monster, then I will make a sneaky attack," he said, picking back his dagger.
Seung leapt into the air, landing on the monster's rigid long leg, and he dashed upwards. When the creature roared again, a strong breeze blew, but he managed to bypass the effect. He jumped away from its body, having gotten close to stabbing the eye.
"Yagrhh!" he voiced the final roar.
Swish!
Something unexpected happened. Before he could find his bearings on the Chimera, his body froze mid-air.
'Hum...yish... what's happening?! I can't...I can't move..!'
It was as if an invisible hand gripped him, almost squeezing his body.
Eventually, a strong force pushed him backwards and his back crashed in the crystalline wall with a loud thud.
He grimaced, "Argh..."
Consequently, the lion-like monster jumped away from the clones and released a strong breeze with its roar, which sent them crashing in the wall as well.
"D*mn it! How's this monster so strong?" Seung said fiercely, wiping the blood that was rolling down his cheeks.
Suddenly, the corpses lying around got enveloped with glowing blue energy. What's happening? Seung had no idea of what the monster was trying to do.
Then, the blue lights moved quickly into the Chimera's body; afterwards, the corpses turned into burnt papers and vanished!
'It has absorbed their mana! Screw this, I am not gonna die in this kind of place! A monster can't decide my fate!' Seung thought, gritting his teeth and clenching his fist.
Mr. Choi arrived at the dungeon and walked close to the military men. He asked, his face enveloped with panic, "Excuse me. Have the three Hunters I brought already left?"
"No, sir. It's been about two hours that they are still in there," one of the soldiers replied.
Mr. Choi walked slowly to his car and rested his arm on the bonnet and placed his chin in his palm. He thought, 'Perhaps, Mr. Lee is in danger? The hunting shouldn't have exceeded one hour yet he has spent double of it. Uhm, I hope that he's safe.'
{Inside the dungeon}
All of a sudden, a reddish energy emanated from the Chimera and wrapped around the trio's necks.
It tightened up, lifting them into the air.
"What...do..I do?!" Lee Seung struggled to say that, already suffocating. And then, the reddish fumes was replaced by blue lights from the trio's bodies.
Seung's heart raced and his breathing seized. He was anxious. He wanted to stop what the monster was attempting, but he couldn't move his body.
'It's absorbing our mana! Am I going to die here?!'