BXBX NOVEL Chapter 228 - Underground Lava Channel
The dungeon that the two best friends entered is said to be infested with monsters. The reason it is infested with monsters is that no one ever bothers killing them. There is no huge settlements near the area so monsters are able to propagate endlessly.
The first floor of the dungeon and the group is already overrun by twenty or more monsters. Levin Cloud exhausted his mana while Saena is absolutely tired from healing. If Charon was not there then they would be wiped out in no time by enemies that are in the level 120s.
The experience they gained is great though as they all leveled up twice by defeating the twenty or so magma crawlers. Magma crawlers are like a mix of small mites and crabs but their shells are made of molten metals that are charred black. The magma crawlers have numbers on their side so their health are little and their attacks are all physical in nature.
Though the simple attacks of the magma crawlers are what also made them difficult when grouped up. If you are surrounded by them then it is a nightmare to escape as claws from all directions would strike at you. Fortunately, Adrian can use Blink and his other soulbounds have movement type skills or are airborne.
"We are still at the first stage yet we already exhausted all our mana. I hate the fact that they added the fact that if you immediately ingest a mana potion after hitting zero mana then you might get mana overload." Levin Cloud complained.
"I think it has to do with battles with NPCs. The developers are probably making our characters closer to the situation with NPCs." Adrian replied as he also waited for a bit before using a mana potion.
The developers sneakily added the mechanic that you cannot immediately ingest a mana potion when you bottomed the mana reserves. The players learned that the hard way and experienced the mana overload after the Halloween patch. Many players even criticized the dev for not immediately saying it but the Halloween patch did say that they tweaked the mana reserves situation so that players do not abuse it.
The players had an easy time with humanoid enemies or human enemies because of their inventory that not all NPCs have. Out of all the NPCs, only the Daemos race has something similar called Subspace and some unique NPCs that dabble in spatial magic. It is not farfetched to say that the developers wanted to make the players more in tune with the world of Pandemonium.
"I even heard that they might nerf the inventory next as it is too broken if it is limitless." Levin Cloud stated.
"That would be a huge blow on alchemists that rely on the combat potions that they brew to clear the dungeons that they go inside of. If the inventory does get nerfed then it would not affect me much because our race dabbles on spatial magic." Adrian replied.
"Do you not know how you can change others into your race yet? I am sure you have gotten the mission for that. Hou Yiwei immediately got that mission when he changed race to a dragonkin. Your race is basically a cheat." Levin Cloud complained.
"I do not know. Usually, any player that unlocks a new race would get the mission to unlock it for other people but I do not have it. I probably need to have a higher level to get access to it. Hou Yiwei was already level 100 when he unlocked the dragonkin so I thought I would be the same so I guess not." Adrian replied.
"You are probably going to not going to benefit from becoming a Daemos anyway. Our race do not have priests because we are only restricted to origin magic. There is not even a priest or church in the Paradox Planes where the whole race is currently inhabiting." Adrian added.
"You told me that there are five asmodian races and that big sis Solstice and you unlocked different ones." Levin Cloud stated.
"I am from the Daemos race and my species is Imp. Big sis Solstice is from the Erebian and her species is Vampire. The other races are Selvaggian, Jotunn like Aurgelmir, and Faekin. You would probably be better suited for the Faekin that can use Nature Magic." Adrian replied.
"So that I can use my mastery for earth magic right. How thoughtful of you but why are you looking away when you said the word Faekin. It seems you are hiding something." Levin Cloud said in a suspicious tone.
"You already an elf so you are already halfway there anyway from becoming one." Adrian said as he stood up to proceed to the next floor.
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The next area is much deeper than the last one and they actually walked for an hour. They would encounter one or two monsters on the way but the most difficult thing is the increasing temperature. Sirius, Saena and Levin Cloud are draining their stamina. They are sweating buckets so Adrian had to improvise by having Kanlaon emit a cold aura around them.
The downside is that Kanlaon had to fly low and would have to resort to long range combat. They entered the area called the Underground Lava Channel and true to its words it is a channel. There are barely any footholds as they would sometimes use Kanlaon to traverse the terrain as it would only be lava fields.
The odd thing is that there are some monsters infesting the lava that swim in it that looked like eels. The group decided not to fight them because only Kanlaon would be able to fight them if those eel like monsters dive into the lava. Kanlaon might suddenly get surrounded if Adrian commands it to dive to the lava to kill the monsters.
They got deeper into the dungeon and they could finally hear a roar. Adrian became expectant and prayed that it is the fire drake only to be disappointed. The source of the roars are actually from a nest of fire raptors.
The group consisted of all adult fire raptors and one of them is almost two times bigger than the other adults. Adrian checked the description of the monster and it is actually called the Fire Raptor King. The fire raptor king had a fiery mane and the end of its tail is actually on fire as well.
Monster: Fire Raptor King
Level: 140
Health: 8,000,000 / 8,000,000
MP: 5,000,000 / 5,000,000
Description: The alpha or the top of the pack for all fire raptors. It is aggressive and attacks anyone who just even goes close to the pack. It is bigger and much fiercer than other fire raptors. In order to become a fire raptor king then all the males of the species that are adults at the time will battle it out. The one left standing will be deigned as the new fire raptor king.
"Can we take them on?" Levin Cloud asked.
"Not all at once. There are like ten of them all in all that are level 130 while the fire raptor king is level 140. We had a difficult time with more than twenty level 120 creatures so eleven creatures above level 130 will be our death." Adrian stated.
"We should lure them then. We can use Charon for that." Levin Cloud suggested and Adrian nodded as he too knows that is the only viable option.
Charon is once again summoned for the job while Adrian and Levin Cloud set up the things needed for their ambush. Sirius hid in a shadow in one of the rocks while Kanlaon hid in a small pond of lava that has no monsters. Saena is currently in her polymorph form to conserve energy.
Adrian set up space mines all over the ambush location. All that is needed now is for Charon to lure one fire raptor at a time. Charon flew towards one of the raptors that is not clustered into a group. This time Adrian did not let it tease the monster as it is proven ineffective.
Adrian commanded Charon to activate its Soul Siphon to get the aggro of the chosen fire raptor. Charon could actually minimize the size of its skill but the cooldown remained so Adrian never bothered to do that. This time however is different as Charon needed to be discreet.
Adrian instructed Charon for the sphere of blue light to only touch those two meters around the latter. The great thing about Soul Siphon is that it would steal the enemies\' health in the area as long as the blue light touched it. Even if it is just your finger that is touched, Soul Siphon would be able to steal the enemies\' health away though it would not be the full 20%.
Charon did as instructed and managed to lure one towards the specified area. Once the fire raptor is in the area, Sirius would then root the fire raptor in place using the shadows while Adrian and Kanlaon would bombard it all they got. The fire raptors easily died because of this tactic.
The tactic worked for the first five fire raptors but it seems the group has looked down upon the intelligence of the Fire Raptor King. The Fire Raptor King uttered a cry that called for the others and suddenly found it strange that only the remaining five responded to his call.
The fire raptor king once again uttered a cry to call the others. But upon having no reaction apart from the five already in the location, the fire raptor king suddenly entered battle mode as the other fire raptors also made threatening growls.