Chapter 31: The Floor By Floor Journey To The Depth Of The Earth 2
1565 Words
7TH FLOOR
Goritaurus, a level 205 centaur-like mammal beast with an upper body of a gorilla, radiates a battle aura and swung its club towards Wilhelm’s head. But gliding smoothly to the right, he dodged the attack and slashed an instinctive counterattack towards the four-legged gorilla’s leg.
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+You dealt a Critical Damage.
+The Critical Damage activated the Cutting Effect, [Goritaurus’ left foreleg had been severed].
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RAUGHH!
The Goritaurus roared as it fell to the ground after losing one of its front legs. Afterwards, Wilhelm activated a sword skill that imbued his blade with a bluish aura and aimed for Goritaurus’ throat, dealing the finishing strike.
“Whew,” Wilhelm panted, wiping the sweat from his forehead. “This floor sure is tougher.”
Goritaurus, Aloelizard [Level 205], Hercules Ant [Level 190], and Tusk Beetle [Level 220]. They are the new set of monsters encounterable upon reaching the seventh floor. And unlike the three species that he’d fought within the first three floors, these four new ones are far more troublesome to handle.
Fighting the Goritaurus is like fighting the Torpedo Bat, Bullman, and Shio Minotaur at once. It has all their strengths and none of their weaknesses. Not to mention that it breathes fire. The Aloelizard, it has the lowest defense but it constantly releases spores that cause Confusion Status. Basically, it could have been the most dangerous group of monsters in the floor if Wilhelm weren’t just highly resistant to the said status effect. Then there’s the Hercules Ants. As much as possible, Wilhelm tries to limit his encounters with them. They might be the lowest levelled monsters in the labyrinth but these thick-skinned, steroid pumped, bull-sized ants are always moving by groups, thus, with Wilhelm’s current level and state, facing such number of tough enemies at once is far too dangerous. And lastly, there’s the Tusk Beetles. These 20 meters anthropomorphic beetles with protruding tusks at the sides of its mouth are the Kings of the 7th Floor when it comes to raw power and defense. They spew poisonous fumes, imbues toxin on their tusks and claws when they unleash attacks, and their shells are as hard as steel. Facing them, Wilhelm was so thankful that he’d acquired the Separator and the Serpentskin Leather Armor before entering here since there is no way that he could have handled these bastards without the support of those gears.
But aside from facing them and their troublesome natures, the 7th Floor also poses another challenge. It’s the food provision. The Aloelizard is more of a walking plant than an animal and the Hercules Ant is an insect that doesn’t have flesh and blood. Therefore, they are not covered by the effect of Butchery so their bodies fade after getting slain. Only the Goritaurus and the Tusk Beetles remain after each battle. However, the meat from Goritaurus is sinewy and inedible, as such that it holds no value as a food. The Tusk Beetle is no different. Though their meats are high class and flavorful, its taste and texture is similar to crustaceans and Wilhelm is allergic to shellfish. This might be a virtual world and he’s not actually digesting it but the thought of eating something similar to the food that brings him suffering still inflict a mental impact. So no thanks, he’d rather died of hunger that to ingest a single ounce of that thing.
For now, the only food sources that he can rely are the forageable cave plants and mushrooms and the dishes and ingredients he had stored in his bag. They are plentiful thanks to his massive hunt and grinding from the previous floors. So even if he munch a huge quantity regularly, the amount is still enough to last up to 4 weeks. And that’s more than enough time for him to reach the succeeding floors where hopefully, the monsters will provide better ingredients.
“Alright, let’s get moving.”
Three days had passed and Wilhelm is halfway done in the 7th Floor.
SLASH! s***h! s***h! s***h! s***h!
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+You dealt a Critical Damage.
+You dealt a Critical Damage.
+You dealt a Critical Damage.
+You dealt a Critical Damage in the Head, the target has less than 10% Health, Cutting Effect had been activated, [Tusk Beetle received an Instant Death].
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Your Level has risen
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And as he progresses further, the Tusk Beetles became a more frequent encounter.
‘Another one!’
Imbuing his blade with the sword skill that enhances his attacking damage by 10% multiplied by its skill level along with a knockback effect, he pierced through the hard shell of the enemy and annihilate with successive attacks.
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The Tusk Beetle has been defeated.
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You have been Poisoned.
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However, one out of three chances he would be poisoned, which eats away his Health by a point a second. He’s highly resistant but he’s not completely immune, so the likelihood of poisoning is still there. Fortunately, he has dishes with detoxification effects thanks to the spice called Green Turmeric Powder that he got from the Aloelizard. His Max Health is also quite higher than usual, so even without immediately detoxification it would take a while before the poisoning could become a fatal harm. Due to those, the poison status that the giant beetles inflict poses no threat.
Ding!
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The Seventh Floor Gourmet Guardian [Scawer] has appeared
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At the end of another three days of thorough exploring, cooking, mapmaking, and continuous battles against the Tusk Beetles and the occasional gangs of Hercules Ants, Wilhelm had at last reached the enclosed chamber where the Sixth Floor entrance along with the Keeper whom he must slay is located.
The King of the Kings, the crimson Tusk Beetle, Scawer. By size alone, he is easily three times larger than the regular Oversoul Tusk Beetles.
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Name: Scawer
Race: Bug*Beetle
Level: 250
Attribute: Steel*Poison
Health: 60,000/60,000
Weakness: Fire
Skills: *Close Combat (Passive), *Steel Body (Passive), *Tusk Tackle (Active), *Venom Swipe (Active), *Venom Breathe (Active), *Toxic Meltdown (Active)
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For identifying a Boss Monster, your Intelligence had risen by 5 points (+5INT)
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And when Wilhelm attempted to enter his territory, the King of Kings automatically spew a thick quantity of purple colored poisonous gas that instantly occupies the entire area.
Normally, with the quantity of his Health and the rate of his resistance, he would have plunged in and endured. However, he jumped back under a vague intuition and a bad feeling towards Scawer’s exclusive skill, the Toxic Meltdown.
MELT!
And he wasn’t wrong. When he threw the tough and inedible meat of the Goritaurus towards the poison gas, the meat rots in seconds, melting it into a tiny puddle on the cave floor.
“Whoa! That’s one nasty poison,” his eyes widened in shock. But not a second later, that shock dissipated and his mouth curved into a devilish grin. “But wrong choice of move.”
Wilhelm then pulled out another item from his bag.
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[Flint]
A hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert.
When struck against steel, a flint edge can produce sparks.
Type: Rock
Durability: 2/2
Rank: -F
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And with that at hand, he jumped into the area of effect of the Toxic Meltdown. And before his feet could touch the poison gas filled ground, he tossed the flint into the air and struck it with the blade of his katana.
When the steel encountered the flint, sparks flew up and spread at an incredible pace.
FLASH!
There was a brief bright flash and at the same time, an outbreak of deafening sounds. Then, the entire area enters a series of consecutive detonations that set everything ablaze like a scourging inferno.
BLAST! KABOOM! KABOOM! KABOOM!
In just a few seconds, the territory of Scawer had become an utter mess. The poisonous gas which filled the entire area before wasn’t there anymore. And the rocks on the walls and ceiling that could not endure the blast had fallen into the ground and scattered in all directions.
When everything cleared, Wilhelm could be seen standing, almost unscathed, as he stared at the sorry state of Scawer as it struggles to stay alive.
Wilhelm then gave a wicked smile. Like what he mentioned earlier, it was a wrong choice of move on Scawer’s part to fill the enclosed chamber with his poisonous gas.
Facing the Tusk Beetles numerous times and plunging against their Venom Breathe heads on, Wilhelm had discovered something in regards to the poison source of their attacks. Normally, setting the humans in the real world as an example, when they metabolize everything that they eat and drink, their waste products are excreted as farts, feces, and urines. However, on the case of the Tusk Beetles, they don’t excrete their waste products through those methods. Instead, all their waste products are converted into toxic gases that they store and use to fuel all their poison base attacks, generally their Venom Breathe, and on Scawer’s case, also his Toxic Meltdown. So therefore, with that as their bodily arrangement, then it’s a given that the poison fumes of their skills are mixed with methane, a highly combustible gas.
Utilizing that knowledge, Wilhelm turned Scawer’s trump card against him and convert the situation to his advantage. Initially, his Poison Resistance is as good as useless against the melting strength of the Toxic Meltdown but when he set the methane of those fumes ablaze, the advantage overwhelmingly shifted to him due to his high Fire Resistance while Scawer whose weakness is Fire was completely toasted with almost nothing left on his Health Points.
“But still, it was admirable that you’re still alive,” he said. ‘As expected from an Oversoul Boss Monster,’ he also thought before eliminating Scawer’s remaining Health.
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The Seventh Floor Gourmet Guardian Scawer has been defeated.
Your Level has risen
Your Level has risen
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With that victory, Wilhelm reached Level 200 and the Sixth Floor of the Gourmet Labyrinth.
- Writer
