*Whooosh*
Dozens of fireballs bombarded the sticky walls of the cavern.
“Shields up,”
*Siiiiiii*
Zyrus’s shout overlapped with the hissing noise coming from all around them. And under the fleeting light of the fireballs, the players saw the ones they would be fighting against. What Zyrus said was indeed correct: they were surrounded.
For the first ti, they felt the word “monster’ was apt to describe the creatures in front of them.
“Expand,” Zyrus waved his hands and linked his vortex spell with Jacob’s fireball. The cyan-blue water ford with his mana was instantly burnt up by the high temperature.
Although creating steam here would make the players’ vision limited, it was more fatal to the Nidhogg. The creatures living here were used to detecting their prey using heat signatures.
‘Their ugliness is proportional to their powers,’
Zyrus’s reptilian eyes focused on the snake-like monsters in front of him. They were three ters long with a pair of venomous fangs, but what made them look freakish were their arms and tails.
Imagine this, what if soone cut a snake in half and attached a frog’s hands into it? And as if a half snake with bony- froglike hands wasn’t creepy enough, they had three tails that resembled a spider’s legs.
'Fortunately, I just need their bloodline essence. It would be tragic if I were to inherit their physique...'
*Siiiiii*
One of the Nidhogg was hanging right above Zyrus’s head. It used its three tails to hang down like a bat and spewed out poison on the players.
“Maintain the shield barrier. The poison is corrosive and highly toxic, but you should be able to last long enough for to finish them off,” Zyrus ordered and activated his bread-and-butter skill for aoe scenarios,
[Shackles of Nihility]
Nurous chains erupted from the cavern’s walls and bound the dozen Nidhoggs. Dozens of green eyes were glaring at him, but it had no effect on Zyrus.
[Summon]
*Crack*
The legion of abyss walked out from the spatial crack once again. Just like Zyrus, they too didn’t feel the least bit uncomfortable in this environnt.
“Jacob, stand in the middle of the shield warriors and blast fireballs whenever you want. Just keep them distracted.”
“Understood.”
Seeing that everything was all right, Zyrus singled out a Nidhogg and ganged up on it with his summons.
*Keeeee*
The cornered Nidhogg sprayed out a dark green poison in his direction. Unlike the previous attack, what made this spray of poison deadly were two factors.
First, it was unavoidable as no skills or items could block it. Second, unlike other poisons that took ti to take effect, this one caused necrosis within seconds.
Unfortunately for it though, neither Zyrus nor his summons were affected by the poison. Necrosis wouldn’t work on Zyrus due to his high resistance against poison.
As for his summons, how could they be affected when they weren’t living beings to begin with? This might have worked on earth when they were in their true bodies, but the sanctuary made their existence practically immortal. No summons could truly die under the system’s influence.
-12,-25,-150,-0,-320,-56,….
Hundreds of damage values floated above the Nidhogg. If not for its small size, it would have long since been pumled to death. Few others of its kind also tried to attack his group, but Zyrus was prepared for it.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to for the genuine story.
He ordered the drakes to blast them one by one to keep them montarily blind.
*Siiiiiii*
After taking close to 5000 damage the monster finally activated its second form. Half of its iridescent black scales were turning sickly green in color.
“Tackle.”
Zyrus didn’t hesitate and ordered ten ophidian warriors to hold it down. He had no choice but to use them as sacrifices.
The fight was going smoothly because the Nidhoggs were distracted. More than half of them were aggroed by Jacob and the shield warriors. While the players looked fine on the surface, they wouldn’t last more than an hour with their current consumption of mana and stamina.
‘I’ll have to finish them before that,’
Zyrus activated his eyes of annihilation to observe the transforming Nidhogg. It had been a while since he had to rely on weakness and critical hits to fight against mobs.
Searing pain flooded his mind as the ophidian warriors dissolved one by one. This ti, the attack was focused on mana rather than pure necrosis. Yellow bioluminescent lines ran across the Nidhogg and dissolved everything around it. Zyrus ignored its enlarging fangs and focused his attention on its throbbing heart.
‘It would be great if I had a weapon, but I can do without it,’
As a Sylvarix, his entire body was a weapon.
*Pcchck*
-3000
Zyrus’s hands penetrated Nidhoggs’ scales and clutched at its heart. At the sa ti, he too was pierced by its fangs.
-500
“Know your place.”
*Splatter*
-2000
There was no last-minute resistance or an all-out attack. Under the piercing gaze of Zyrus, the monster was unable to control its own power.
Even though their bloodline was corrupted and mutated, even though they had beco stronger than their previous forms, they were still snakes in the end.
At this mont when death was staring right at its eyes, how could the monster bear the pressure of soone who had the blood of Nidraxis? Although Zyrus wasn’t a true dragon, he could emulate the pressure of one with his bloodline.
‘I look forward to the day when blood fusion reaches its completion.’
Zyrus ignored the talent’s prompt to create the trait and moved on to the next Nidhogg. The hunt was just beginning.
…
-2000
Exp 1000
Level Up!
[Strength 2]
[Agility 1]
[Mana 1]
The last Nidhogg fell under Zyrus’s claws. The players had exhausted their mana and stamina after the tenth monster was killed. Thus, Zyrus had to use his summons to deal with the last few on his own.
There was a reason why no one could clear this place for so long. Wave tactics were out of the picture in this narrow cavern, and no one except shield warriors could block the Nidhoggs' poison breath and necrosis.
Out of the less than thousand players, how many shield warriors can a party have? Too few and everyone would be wiped out, and too many would an that they would lack other damage dealers.
‘Summoners are treated as kings in these types of scenarios.’
Zyrus with his Balaur summoner class was equivalent to hundreds of close and mid-range damage dealers. And all of them were immune to necrosis.
The last cog in their team was Jacob, a mage who could cast more than a thousand fireballs in an hour. None of them dealt more than 10 damage, however, what mattered was that they succeeded in keeping the aggro.
“Rest up well. We’ll head in after resting for an hour.”
No one had the energy to reply to Zyrus’s orders. The players nodded their heads and slumped down to recover.
“Rember that while overdrawing your mana and stamina is harmful in the short term, you’ll get endless benefits from it. The sanctuary will reward you once you break past your limits.”
There weren’t Zyrus’s empty words. As the one who had accumulated dozens of achievents in every ring, he knew firsthand how important fights like these were.
He left the players aside and cleaned up the area. While the Nidhogg looked unpleasant, their poison glands were worth quite a lot. The crafters back at the base would have one more project to work on.
Ti passed by as the group headed deeper into the cavern. Hours turned into days as they killed more than 500 Nidhoggs in half a week. This was an astonishing number considering their lineup.
This resulted in all the players leveling up multiple tis. As the main contributor, Zyrus reached level 30 without any hurdles.
[Ding! You have reached the core region of the Lair of Nidhogg]
[The King of Nidhogg has noticed your presence]
[You have discovered a field boss! Proceed ahead to comnce the boss raid]
“Halt,” Zyrus raised his hand and looked at the darkness ahead. After days of grueling work, they were finally here.
The target for his blood fusion and the pirates’ treasure was right in front of them. Even so, getting them was easier said than done.
“Set up a camp here.”
“Roger that.”
The players followed his orders without wasting any ti. Their cohesiveness was pushed to a whole new level after fighting together in this cramped place.
One of the main reasons behind it was the battle formation taught by Zyrus. Not just these players, every frontline class like swordsn, spearn, and mages were learning these formations. This was Zyrus’s tweaked invention after his experint with the totem.
It wasn’t sothing spectacular that deserved recognition from the system. Nonetheless, it was sufficient to improve their teamwork and unleash a mighty power.
‘It’s their first ti using this formation in a real battle, and against a field boss no less.’
Even Zyrus was apprehensive about the battle’s outco. Unlike Tauranox and Camazotz, the Nidhogg king wasn’t simple to deal with.
“No matter what happens, make sure to preserve your life. As long as you share the damage and stack up your skills, I don’t believe that even a field boss can kill you.”
He encouraged the players and started making his own preparations as well. He had received an update from Franken not too long ago. It was an unexpected yet pleasant surprise.
And if everything went as planned, then it wouldn’t be long before his army conquered this stretch of the ocean.
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