"Feel any different?" I asked once Vee finished consuming the golden apple.
"Like a million bucks! It's like I just drank ten energy drinks and a full pot of coffee all at once!" Vee said with bubbling enthusiasm.
"That does not sound healthy."
"On the contrary, I feel like I could go run a marathon and climb a mountain!" Vee replied. I couldn't help but notice her legs were jittering back and forth.
"Okay, just be careful, I guess."
"Roger, hopefully I won't crash down since it was a fruit. Well, a magic fruit, but the point still stands."
I made two tentacles just to make a shrugging gesture, causing Vee to have a fit of giggles while we proceeded to the next floor.
I wondered if every floor would be ti-based, but the next floor proved that theory wrong. The goal of the floor was simply to "defeat the group of elite enemies."
Once again, it was the strange plantoids, but only five of them this ti. Three were the size of an orc, while two were even bigger than that! It looked like they were farming a sort of ragtag party formation, so I expected them to put up more of a fight than the mindless invaders.
"Feel free to jump in and take one or two out, maybe burn up so of that excess energy," I offered to Vee.
"Great idea!" Vee agreed and imdiately teleported onto the head of one of them.
The challenge hadn't even officially started yet, and Vee was already sinking her fangs into one while releasing a massive amount of threads. To my surprise, they weren't her [Rift Threads], but due to that, she could manipulate and control them on another level entirely, and she started whipping the razor-sharp threads around like a deadly garrote wire.
Not wanting to be outdone, I dove into the fray myself, forming a vast array of weapons and monster parts at the ends of my tendrils while mixing half with [Cryo Sli] and the other half with [Blaze Sli].
Both proved especially deadly for the plant monsters, who couldn't handle extre temperatures, although I noted that [Cryo Sli] perford moderately better.
I bet Dran has developed these monsters to have so fire resistance. That way, any random pyromancer can't just casually walk through his dungeon without any challenge.
Either through sheer luck on our part or bad luck on Dran's, the random monster Vee had chosen to land on turned out to be the healer. With the healer dealt with, it ant the rest of the fake party lacked any ans of recovering themselves.
I restrained the two extra large plants, assuming at least one of them was the tank, while I focused my attack on the remaining two. Their caster flung countless roots to bind or hamper , but as soon as they touched my flesh, they were lted or withered away from my deadly sli concoctions.
Before I knew it, both Vee and I had swiftly dealt with the group, and I had even gotten a level up in my troubles.
Three floors and only one level… but they are pretty small fry. Here's hoping the next few floors have more to offer!
The fourth floor was a new "challenge," where we had to capture an enemy commander alive. It was a regal-looking planetoid with a full head of hair made of blue and orange flowers.
Unfortunately for Dran, I had regained a lot of my sli mass, and when the challenge started, I shifted into a "dium"-sized worm, barreled through the rank-and-file troops, and swallowed the VIP whole. Of course, I wasn't using any of my offensive sli traits, nor the snake's trait, even though it would have been highly appropriate.
Instead, I kept the target trapped inside , encased in a thick layer of adamantine sli. It flailed wildly and attacked my inner walls with its weapon, releasing a poisonous cloud of spores, but none of it had any noticeable effect, so I ignored him until I finished killing the troops with Vee's help, and we "won."
Naturally, once we were completed with the stage, I had full permission to eat the VIP and was quite overjoyed with the amount of sli mass it generated.
Speaking of which, I had received quite a few [Plantoid] profiles since starting this dungeon. I kept glancing at them occasionally when it would update but had yet to find anything that was eye-catching.
Back in Kaerlin, I had eaten a plant horror, which could graft and mutate plants attached to it. In my opinion, that was a far superior representation of the plant monster species than these plantoids, which seed more like plants trying to crudely imitate goblins, humans, and orcs.
The next floor involved killing a large group of treants, except each one had evolved its bark to mimic a specific material property. I couldn't help but compare it to [tal Sli] and found it quite lacking, as the treants were stuck with their choice while I was free to adapt.
The two most noteworthy treants embodied fire and ice, respectively. The one looked like a piece of walking charcoal and could wield [Fire Magic]. When it intentionally set itself on fire, it actually empowered itself. In what felt like a blast from the past, the treant, while burning alive, could wield blue flas!
"Too bad for you unless you've got dragon fire. I think I'm perfectly safe," I taunted.
"Speak for yourself. I'm still highly flammable!" Vee cried out while she used [Warp] to dodge any incendiary projectiles. "Thank the gods. I didn't take that werewolf regeneration, or I'd be a charred stain on the floor by now!"
This story originates from . Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
I had to agree with Vee; stacking weaknesses on yourself was never a good idea. I ordered my [Sub-Cores] to help protect her, and they started to defend against the encroaching flas with [Bubble] and [Ice Do] spells.
I had already eaten a chunk of the "charcoal" treant, so I was more than happy to let it continue burning itself to death. anwhile, I focused my effort on the strange crystalline version that fired nurous [Icicle] spells at while emanating [Glacial Aura].
Poor Vee was not having a happy ti on this floor, so I endeavored to kill this one first, as the aura spell affected her while she was using [Phase Out]. I knew it needed to die, so I pulled out one of my semi-recent and favorite secret weapons—my exploding needles of [Nitro Sli].
While I couldn't detonate a giant sli worm, I still had enough to start so explosions. I tasked a few [Sub-Cores] that weren't on "protect the spider" duty to switch to production, and they rapidly started churning them out.
Using [Sli Shot], I fired a barrage of them into the crystalline treant, ensuring they were well distributed throughout its body. Then, with a maniacal giggle, I triggered their detonation.
Boom!
With coordinated precision, dozens of needles exploded simultaneously, ripping the entire icy treat into shreds and scattering it across the room.
"Oh no," Vee whispered, with what sounded like a hint of fear. "The explosions are back."
"Just small ones," I retorted. "For now…"
"That's what I'm afraid of. I don't want a repeat of the exploding worm!" she cried out.
"No… unless I get to eat another entire ant nest and worms, I don't think I can afford that," I replied somberly. "But, I should maybe consider experinting with the spell orbs again."
"Oh no…" Vee muttered.
"Hey! I just realized that I got new magic to try putting inside them!" I joyfully exclaid.
"No. Syl, no. Bad sli!" Vee reprimanded. "We can't have you exploding and creating rifts in reality. Rember the essence sludge? What if you make so dinsional monster!?"
"Oh yeah, that could be pretty bad. What if I make sothing immune to your [Rift Threads]?"
"Exactly! No making bombs with [Dinsional Magic], promise?"
"Fine, fine, I promise…"
For now…
My mischievous thoughts were interrupted by a rather sorrowful request.
"See! Even the [Dungeon Master] doesn't want you ssing with reality."
"Fine," I grumbled and took out my frustration on the smoldering remains of the charcoal treant.
I activated my own [Glacial Aura], followed by debuffing it with [Frigid] and finally throwing out an endless barrage of [Frostbite] infused [Icicle] spells.
The subsequent chain of spells happened in such precise succession that the fla of the tree went out. It hastily tried to conjure more flas, but as fast as it was channeling the magic, a thick layer of ice encroached over its entire body from each frozen projectile stabbed into it. I sped things up by firing a few sticky blobs of [Cryo Sli] at it, and it soon froze over and perished.
We moved on to the next floor, where we received another strange challenge. As we entered, we noticed a strange-looking plantoid wearing a little crown of golden flowers. I was about to attack it, as I thought it might've been so new elite monster when a sudden notification halted .
"Another protection mission?" I groaned.
Vee shuddered, "And it's the worst kind—an escort quest!"
I was about to ask Vee to clarify when the plantoid king provided a demonstration for . A group of monsters had spawned, and the king casually strolled towards them as if he had no fear in the world.
"Is he trying to get himself killed!?" I yelled out in frustration.
I activated [Blink] to appear next to him and blocked the arrows fired by the hostile plantoids with a shield of sli.
"Just grab the bastard, turn into your worm thing, and eat him!" Vee yelled out in frustration.
I started withdrawing sli and reached out to lift him up with tendrils. As soon as I touched him, a blaring notification like a siren occurred, causing to flinch and stop.
"This is literally the worst kind of escort quest!" Vee cursed.
"Well shit, if I can't touch him, then I'll just have to build a shifting wall around him!"
And that was precisely what I did. I started withdrawing copious amounts of sli, almost emptying my reserves, and began rapidly constructing a small fortress around the frolicking plantoid king. I kept the sli transparent, so the king could "see" through it and began mimicking his movents across the battlefield.
To my relief, no further notifications denounced my actions, so I knew we'd found a winning strategy to keep the stupid king alive. And so, while he wandered around the floor in blissful ignorance, I was crushing any invaders that got in my way.
It wasn't "difficult" per se, but it was certainly annoying. Having to pay close attention to the king and prevent him from touching my sli was causing a unique form of ntal tax. When the tir notification appeared, I breathed a blissful sigh of relief!
"Thank the gods," I muttered.
The king had ceased his scampering and was doing what looked like a strange dance.
"I'm going to eat him," I declared, letting my hostility be known.
"Please do. He honestly deserves it!" Vee fully agreed.
My sli walls began to enclose on him when another notification popped up.
And the king reached inside of his chest, pushing aside roots and bark, and pulled out a platinum banana.
"Fruit!" Vee cried out with joy.
"Bleh. Fine, I guess the king gets to live." I grumbled and slid my way over to a corner to sulk.
While Vee was taking the platinum banana, I began reading through my gains.
Oh! I got a class level; I'd almost forgotten I had one of those after my experience distribution was changed.
"Wow. [Companion Growth] has really been shooting up the levels; it's now at the sa level as [Companion Training]!" I inford Vee excitedly.
"Well, doesn't the latter only work if you're boosting one of my skills that's lower than yours?" Vee asked. "We're on par with [Dinsion Magic] and [Corrosion Magic], so it's probably not getting any experience lately."
"And you've been slacking on your [Counter Magic] training ever since we moved to Caelthal," I pointed out.
"True…" Vee admitted.
"Well [Companion Growth] is far more important. The sooner we get that maxed out, the better."
"Shouldn't be too long at this rate. I'm assuming our maxed-out bond level is helping a ton?"
I nodded.
"Well, the next floor awaits! We're so close to the first boss, and I can't wait to see what it is after hearing about your fight against the Eyedra, demon cat, and scorpion lady."
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