BXBX NOVEL 746 Chapter 746
Appearing in a flash of light Marcus, Mrazivý, and Roxene found themselves standing on a teleportation circle in a familiar looking room.
In it were a number of couches and fresh sets of tea and snacks that constantly replenished themselves.
\'I guess all of the waiting rooms are the same. And it looks like we are the first ones here.\' Marcus thought after examining their surroundings.
"Well, we might as well make ourselves at home until the others arrive." Mrazivý said before moving over to the tea and cookies.
However, the automated dungeon moderator appeared in front of them before they could move off the teleportation circle.
"Congratulations users Marcus, Mrazivý, and Roxene. You have now completed floors elven through twenty of special dungeon number eleven, Realization of Self Perfection. You may now rest yourselves here or if you so choose head deep in to challenge floors twenty-one through thirty. As these are individual challenges like floors one through ten you need not wait for any others to finish. I hope that you continue to find use in this special dungeon going forward. If you have any questions at a later time feel free to call upon me."
After saying this the avatar of the dungeon\'s moderator disappeared as quickly as she had shown up.
"I see. Looks like we will have to be going it alone again at least for the next ten floors." Marcus said with a frown on his face.
There was no doubt in his mind that it had been easier to get through the last ten floors than the first ten.
Just having other people to share the burden with and help when he got knocked down had made quite the difference in getting through the special dungeon.
"I suspect this is the trend we will see. For ten floors we will fight alone and then for ten floors we will fight together." Mrazivý said while shrugging her shoulders.
She then moved over to her initial aim and began pouring tea for al of them to enjoy.
With nothing else to do as they had already decided to wait for the others, the three of them simply lounged around.
Nearly two days went by before the next group arrived.
In a flash of light Lilia and her team appeared in the room, and Marcus rushed up to his little sister before she could even regain her bearing.
"Lilia are you okay? I do not see any injuries, but do you need healing? Everything is fine right?"
Marcus threw out a barrage of rapid-fire questions about Lilia\'s health as he examined her for any sort of injuries.
Last time she had made it through the first ten floors she had arrived with horrible injuries of both the body and heart. And now Marcus was making sure nothing similar happened.
"I am fine Marcus. Any injuries I had incurred are already gone. I did manage to get the high-speed regeneration skill just like you and Roxene so even a missing limb is only an inconvenience now." She said with her face getting redder and reader by the moment.
She was obviously embarrassed by how overtly Marcus was showing concern for her, but a slight smile was creeping onto her face showing she was not actually all that perturbed by it.
On the other hand, Alaric who had been completely ignored held out his hand left hand which was miss its pinky and ring finger.
"Um, Marcus I actually have an injury that could use your attention. Would you mind helping me out?"
Marcus seeing that he had totally disregarded the others apologized and quickly healed Alaric\'s wounds.
"Sorry about that. I am sure you understand though that I was simply worried for Lilia first and foremost." Marcus said as he rubbed the back of his head.
Once they had all gotten settled, Marcus and Mrazivý sat down across from Alaric and Lilia to begin retelling each other about their respective challenges.
To start Marcus and Mrazivý spoke of their eleventh floor and how the three of them each had individual trails, before one final battle where they need to put into practice what they had learned.
"It was pretty tough, but we managed to get through just fine by working together at the end. I did take a few hits getting through all the traps, but it was nothing I could not bounce back from." Marcus said.
Soon enough he had relayed everything he and his team had gone through, and it was Lilia\'s turn.
"And as we thought the wave of monsters was over and we had completed the battle, the dungeon warped us into a true boss fight."
With a dramatic flair Lilia retold the battle she, Alaric, Aurelia, and Zareen had with the colossal mantis boss monster.
In it she made Alaric out to be about fifty percent more heroic than he had actually been, but even with her making it sound less dangerous, Marcus tell by the expression on all their faces that it had actually been a life or death battle they had barely walked away from.
"I am glad you managed to get out of that. I can certainly say we had some tough battles but none I ever felt like we might have died during. I am proud of you for getting through that."
Lilia hearing this from Marcus began welling up with tears in her eyes and reached over and hugged him.
In only an instant the tough faced she had been wearing faded away, and instead of the heroic battle she had described, she instead began crying while talking about how scared she was.
During the fight she nearly ended up dead herself and watching Alaric lay limp in a pile of his own blood had truly frightened her.
"I understand, it must have been rough. Feel free to tell me your worries and get everything off your chest." Marcus said while rubbing her back.
With tears flowing down her face Lilia continued telling about the experiences her team had faced through the eleventh to twentieth floor.
Apparently, they had to go through six difficult battles in contrast to Marcus and his group which really only had two.
"So many times, I thought one of us were going to die. This place really is cruel. Pushing us to our limits and then forcing us to go beyond or break. Time and time again."
Marcus sat there and comforted Lilia for nearly a half hour. And Alaric seemed pretty shaken up as well, so he offered him support as well.
"Now I think that is enough about the hardships you all faced. What rewards did you get? With how hard you were pushed they must have been pretty good." Marcus said, changing the topic.
At this Lilia and Alaric became noticeably less distraught now that their minds were not focused on the negatives but the positives of the dungeon.
While it would try to break those that entered it, those that managed to temper themselves would receive powerful rewards for their efforts.
"Yeah, we got some pretty rare and value items. All of us received unique skills after our victory on the eleventh floor. In fact, I got the Peerless Soul unique skill to go along with Peerless Body." Lilia said proudly.
She then told Marcus what it did, and he could only be envious of how powerful the unique skill was.
\'To think it increased her spirit stat by seventy percent. Talk about busted. Not only that, it gives her a quasi-soul regeneration, and she has a heavy resistance to soul-based attacks. Even my phantom pressure at full power does not immobilize her anymore.\'
Lilia having this unique skill was much stronger and had apparently even figured out how to use her spiritual energy now thanks to how her unique skill made her more Intune with her own soul.
"And you Alaric, what unique skill did you get?" Marcus said when he wanted to move on from Lilia.
However, Alaric\'s unique skill was just as powerful and also made Marcus envious.
He had gotten a unique skill called Spell Storage, which allowed him to save spells away for later and cast without having to expend mana and with almost no delay.
For every three hundred points of his intelligence stat he could store a single tier of a spell.
Meaning with nine hundred points he could store one tier three spell or three tier one spells.
\'Damn if I had something like that, I could keep three tier seven spells and a few other lower ones in reserve to be cast at basically no cost whenever I wanted. Talk about a really powerful unique skill that will only get better the higher level you get.\'
Marcus after hearing about the two unique skills Lilia and Alaric had received wished he could have gotten them.
During his entire time in this special dungeon he had not yet received a unique skill orb. Though he had just gotten an amethros ingot and some powerful skills, so he could not really complain.
Once Lilia and Alaric had finished talking about their own unique skills, they explained the ones that Aurelia and Zareen had gotten.
"Zareen got something called Agonizing Strikes which make all of her physical attacks do more damage than normal and heightens the pain the target is feeling. We did not get an exactly accurate measure of how powerful her attacks are now, but it is enough to be easily noticeable. Aurelia on the other hand received something called Searing Resurrection."
Hearing the details of this skill Marcus found it similar to his own revival unique skill Deny Destruction, but with a few differences.
Unlike his skill that basically transported him to a separate dimension upon his destruction and allowed him to choose to come back within a twenty-four-hour period, Aurelia would immediately revive if she were to die from anything other than old age.
But along with reviving she would also be able to launch a powerful light-based attack against all of her enemies within a hundred meters, while excluding her allies.
"I see. She does not get the flexibility of coming back when she wants, but instead gets to make a strong counterattack. They both have their uses, though with hers having only a half a year cool down vs my whole year Aurelia\'s might be better."
When they had wrapped up talking about each of the unique skills that Lilia\'s team had received, they moved onto other rewards they had received along with skills they had learned.
Yet while they were in the middle of their discussion the teleportation circle flashed bright once again and another group appeared.
Now standing there was the beast companion team led by Inten, and among them Eirwen and Blitz were noticeably different than they had been when they had entered.