Lucien didn’t plan to spend too much ti in the dungeon.
As soon as he arrived at the entrance, he pulled out the Perfu Drop he’d looted from the slis before.
According to the description, once used, it would make him sll like a sli. It’s enough for other slis to treat him as one of their own.
"It’s perfect for a speed run straight to the Boss room!"
The perfu itself looked ordinary. Beautifully packaged as courtesy of the system but otherwise unremarkable.
He sprayed it over his body.
And... Nothing.
No sll.
No tingling.
No change at all.
He sniffed again, harder. Still nothing.
"Hmm. Maybe only slis can sll it," he muttered while shrugging.
And just as expected, the slis along the way didn’t react aggressively. In fact, so bounced excitedly when they saw him.
He crouched and poked a few. They playfully jumped around, circling him like pets.
One even snuggled into his leg.
"If I didn’t know you guys were monsters, I might’ve kept one of you," Lucien said with a chuckle.
But dungeon creatures couldn’t be brought outside. They were too dangerous.
Still, he picked one up. It squished comfortably in his arms as he continued on.
As he walked, he found himself comparing it to the sli plushies he had in his inventory.
"Why are those plushies softer? What are they even made of...?"
Eventually, he reached the Boss room.
Lucien gave the sli one last hug.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Almost as if he’d miss it.
And then...
Without hesitation, he drove his hand through its soft body and gripped the core.
The sli quivered briefly... then collapsed into a puddle, lting away at his feet.
"Kuh..." Lucien clutched his chest. "I didn’t want to do this... but I can’t afford to get attached."
He said it as if to ease his own guilt... though there was none.
Wiping his hand clean, Lucien turned toward the towering doors ahead.
They were massive and was carved with faint glowing lines.
He placed both hands on them and pushed.
To his surprise, they opened without much resistance and it groaned quietly as they parted.
Inside, the chamber stretched far wider than he expected.
The dungeon walls gave off a faint and steady glow... enough to illuminate the vast room in a cold light.
And at the center... sothing pulsed.
Waiting.
The Sli Boss...
It was massive.
It’s as if a lot of smaller slis had fused into one grotesque whole. Its surface shimred with rainbow hues but the colors weren’t neat or orderly. They clashed and swirled in chaotic patterns like abstract art brought to life.
The mont Lucien stepped inside, the creature stirred.
It bounced slowly as if to challenge him.
"So the perfu doesn’t work on the Boss," Lucien noted grimly. It had seen through him instantly.
He narrowed his eyes.
"INSPECT."
***
Sli Boss
Level: 10
Weakness:
• Mana Cores
• Elental Magic (Fire, Lightning, Ice)
***
Suddenly, Lucien’s instincts flared.
The Sli Boss made the first move. A preemptive strike!
Unlike the docile slis outside, this one was downright aggressive.
What caught him off guard wasn’t just the attack but the number of projectiles.
Five sli shots launched at once, whistling through the air with shocking speed.
Lucien sucked in a breath and dove to the side, narrowly avoiding the barrage.
"Too fast..."
He didn’t waste a second. Activating BURROWER’S EYE, he scanned the Sli Boss for its core.
But what he saw made his blood run cold.
"Fuck... Why does it have so many cores?"
He couldn’t even count them all before another barrage was already flying toward him. He rolled away again, barely evading the next impact.
Each attack confird one thing... this was no ordinary sli.
’So that’s why ’Mana Cores’ showed up as a weakness...’
But then, sothing caught his attention. One of the cores stood out.
Larger.
Brighter.
Slightly off-center.
’That must be the main one,’ he thought.
If he could reach it... this fight might be over faster than he feared... or hoped.
What gave Lucien a bit of relief was the Sli Boss’s sluggish movent.
It couldn’t keep up with him, giving him space to think as he ran in circles trying to formulate a plan.
But then, the Boss began to thrash.
It bounced erratically.
"It’s getting agitated..."
Suddenly, its massive form quivered... and split.
A chunk of its body broke off, reducing its overall size. From that mass, two smaller slis erged.
These ones were different.
Faster.
They launched forward with surprising agility, chasing Lucien as the main Sli Boss continued to bombard him with sli shots from behind.
Lucien’s eyes widened.
"Shit!"
He spun around mid-run and summoned Ironbite from his inventory. He then slashed at the first mini-sli, aiming straight for its core.
It shattered with a splash.
At the sa ti, he crouched to avoid the crushing body slam of the second one then side-stepped to dodge another barrage from the Boss.
He pivoted sharply and cleaved the second mini-sli before it could react.
With its minions destroyed, the Sli Boss grew even more agitated.
It let out a trembling sound like a monstrous vibration... and lunged at Lucien in a wide arc.
Still, it remained slower than him.
But its movents were getting sharper. More violent.
Lucien knew one thing for sure. The real fight was just beginning.
Angered, the Sli Boss began channeling again.
Lucien narrowed his eyes.
"It’s summoning more minions... sa pattern as before."
He spotted the swell in the creature’s body... More slis were about to split off.
But this ti, Lucien acted first.
Without hesitation, he stepped forward and dropped a heavy object from his inventory. It was one of the massive boulders he had used previously in his trap against the assassins.
The enormous rock materialized in midair and crashed down above the Boss with a thunderous impact.
The Sli Boss reacted imdiately and jumped backwards in alarm.
But its newly ford minions weren’t so lucky.
They couldn’t escape in ti. The boulder slamd into them, crushing them into goo on the spot.
Lucien didn’t waste the opportunity.
Using the boulder as a blind spot, he flanked the Sli Boss, darted around and launched a surprise attack.
He drove Ironbite into the creature. He aid straight for the large mana core.
But...
The blade stopped halfway in.
Lucien gritted his teeth. The sheer density of the sli’s body was slowing his strike.
Worse, as he tried to pull the sword free, it refused to budge.
Ironbite was stuck.
Then Lucien felt it. A shift!
The Sli Boss’s body began to glow ominously and pulsed with unstable energy.
It had noticed.
It knew Lucien had found its weakness.
It feels threatened...
Lucien’s instincts scread at him.
Without wasting a second, he stored Ironbite back into his inventory and bolted.
He didn’t look back.
The glow intensified, lighting up the entire chamber like a flare.
And then—
Boom!
The Sli Boss exploded.
Lucien hit the ground and rolled with his heart pounding.
But when he looked back, he was stunned.
The Sli Boss was still alive... Just smaller. Much smaller.
Its exploded mass had splattered across the chamber but it wasn’t random. The remnants now ford a thick, gelatinous layer coating the floor around it.
A sticky field.
Lucien’s eyes widened.
If he’d been caught in that, he would’ve been rooted on the spot... maybe crushed by the sheer force of the blast.
He took a cautious step forward then stopped.
The sticky terrain clung to anything that touched it. It’s like a trap designed to immobilize those who stepped inside it.
"So this is its domain now..."
If Lucien stepped inside, he’d be a sitting duck.
Unable to dodge.
Unable to fight.
The Sli could toy with him freely.
And worse...
Now that it was smaller, it was also faster.
Lucien tightened his grip, his mind racing. ’I can’t go in there head-on. I need a new plan...’
Lucien didn’t know what to do now.
The Sli Boss refused to leave the sticky field. It sat there like a predator in its lair, daring him to co closer.
Then without warning... it attacked again.
A sli shot.
Faster than before.
Much faster.
It tore through the air like a bullet.
Lucien barely had ti to react.
CRACK!
The projectile hit him square in the chest, sending him flying.
But even in mid-air, Lucien managed to twist his body. He sorsaulted and landed roughly on his feet, sliding backward across the stone floor.
He coughed while clutching his chest.
If not for his instincts and the quick draw of his sword, it could’ve been far worse. At the last second, he had summoned Ironbite and used it as a makeshift shield.
Still, the impact had thrown him.
He looked around frantically and spotted the weapon lying several feet away.
When he picked it up, his heart dropped.
The blade was hissing... corroding.
"Shit!"
He flailed it, trying to shake off the acidic residue. Thankfully, the damage wasn’t too severe.
But Lucien’s expression darkened.
"That wasn’t a normal sli shot," he muttered. His chest still ached. "No... that was sothing else entirely. An Acid Bullet... Maybe?"
Then, an idea struck Lucien.
"If the Sli can create a field... then so can I."
He quickly summoned several massive boulders from his inventory, scattering them strategically across the room.
Instant cover.
They’d serve as shields.
Places to duck behind.
Reposition.
And counterattack.
And more importantly, they’d block those deadly acid bullets.
The Sli Boss noticed the change imdiately. Its body tensed.
Lucien began moving. He sprinted between the rocks.
Ducking.
Weaving.
Using the terrain to his advantage.
Acid bullets splattered across the stone, narrowly missing him.
But he didn’t slow down.
He glanced at one of the boulders mid-run.
"Already corroding?! That acid was no joke!"
Still, the tactic worked. It gave him space to think.
He reviewed what he knew.
The Sli Boss was smaller now. It had used up its extra cores... likely sacrificed them to generate the sticky field.
Only one core remained. The large one. It beca more vulnerable.
"If I hit it right... this fight’s over."
Then that’s when an inspiration hit him.
He summoned several sli plushies from his inventory and tossed them toward the sticky field.
They landed with a soft plop and stuck fast.
The Sli Boss froze.
It stopped firing.
Confused, it bounced in place, hesitating... then slowly approached the plushies.
It began bouncing strangely. Almost as if... it was talking to them.
No response ca, of course.
Lucien watched from behind a boulder, crouched low.
Then...
’Now.’
He crouched low behind the boulder with his eyes locked on the distracted Sli Boss.
Then... he lunged forward.
"Goodbye, motherf*cker."
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