A Path of Bone and Poison 50 Bugging ou

With my hands as my main casting instrument thanks to my new gloves, I was starting to feal.like a real mage. Before, with my guns and "Bullets" I felt more like a soldier from back on earth. My spells had not changed, and in many ways I was still basically a commando. I had bullets and grenades. I traveled in stealth. My moves were not flashy, but they most certainly were deadly.

Trash mobs from the latest dungeon lay at my feet. My grenades had decimated the groups, while my bullets picked off the survivors. Hylia stood behind me, only shaking her head.

We had entered a D rank dungeon, this time the prey of focus were Giant praying mantises. They were swift and strong, but their defense was lacking. Their sharp scythe like arms could easily take off the head of their prey. Unfortunately for them by guerilla warfare style easily defeated them, and up until this point Hylia had not even needed to take action. Their speed was useless if they were dead before they could detect me.

We did not recieve a quest when we entered the dungeon, and A D rank dungeon was something that was well beneath our actual skill level. I knew the rewards from the dungeon would not be any good. I would be lucky to even gain 5 levels.

If things continued to progress as they were even C rank dungeons would eventually become nothing but a joke to us. When we finally managed to rank up that high I'm sure that our party members would be nothing but a burden.

Unfortunately there was nothing we could do about this. The dungeon had specific rules, and as the governing agency the adventure guild could not break them. All we could hope for was that when we eventually reached that point our teammates would not be too much of a burden.

The first floor had been mostly cleared, all that remained was a mini boss. It was a larger version of the Mantises I had already slain. When I examined I noticed that it was different from its compatriots. It was black, and its scythes resembled the teeth of a saw. It also hovered above the ground, never truly landing.

As I approached the mantis somehow had locked onto my position, and approached at a speed the faster than my own. Thankfully Hylia's speed was faster than my own and was able to intercept the attack.

The mantis attacknwith both scythes, and Hylia had to utilize the long handle of her maul to effectively block the attack. She did not have time to retaliate before another series of blows came at her.

I did not stand idle as I used shadow movement and my bullets to attack her flanks. When she was beginning to adjust to my attacks I would quickly shift to another location.

When most of the mantis's hp was gone it grew enraged, its body burning bright red and its attacks grew much faster. Hylia was no longer able to keep up, and recieved several rather deep gashes along her body. I no longer held back as I utilized my stealth to its maximum capabilities. With the mantis in an enraged state I only needed to continue firing, moving only to reup my stealth.

Each of my attacks recieved double damage from attacking in stealth, and the bullets soon fell the mantis. I looked at Hylia, who was covered in blood. Her wounds were already rapidly healing. I could only shake my head. With her abilities and equipment it was a shame that she was not a tank type. Though that was probably a little unfair, as her damage reduction and hp regeneration were actual inferior to an actual tank as she could not wear any sort of armor.

The mantis turned into a pixilated stream and rushed into Hylia's body. A soft glow seemed to engulf her before disappearing. It was rather odd as I had only seen the occurence once before, and that was when my cloak had become a magical item.

Whatever the result we would not know until the dungeon was complete. We had only completed the first floor, and had at least one more floor to go. I don't know if this instance had an actual boss type monster, or if all that awaited us was an additional mini boss.

This would only be solved by traversing through the dungeon. We did not pause to think about it much as we proceeded to the next floor.

The next floor was nothing like the first. The first had been a jungle cavern, and that remained true for the second floor. But that is where the similarities ended. I could see massive webs blocking most of the space that could be traversed, leaving a single path forward.

I had an ominous feeling as I looked toward that path. It was an obvious trap, but unfortunately we did not have an other option. With a grim face I looked towards our path, a shiver going down my spine and goosebumps appearing on my skin. I absolutely hated spiders.

Chapter end