Chapter 201. Second Season (4)

What kind of a golem had bones!? If it’s a bone golem, it should only be made of bones. Alternatively, if it’s a flesh golem made of a mixture of bones and flesh, it should be covered with disgusting rotten flesh. But this guy was neither! I scrutinized it closely and realized something. It wasn’t a golem!

“Are you...”

[Kuha!]

Its steel arm extended like a certain pirate king candidate’s and shot toward me. As I thought, this wasn’t a golem, but a living being! Golems couldn’t freely transform their bodies like that. However, it could maintain its steel body and stretch its arm. What was its identity? Did it really have bones underneath all that steel...? No, now wasn’t the time to leisurely think about it.

“Lotte, dodge!”

[Leave it to me!]

Lotte dodged the steel arm in an instant. At the same time, her wings produced a raging whirlpool of black flames. It seemed she had gotten stronger from the trip to the Panan continent. Was it because she spent more time with me? Or was it because she participated in battles? Regardless, I may need to reconsider how I let Plene grow.

[Hero, it’s trying to do something!]

“It’s fine. I know what it is, so let’s finish it now.”

The 60th Floor Master wasn’t worthy of blocking my way for over 9 seconds. It seemed its ability was freely manipulating its large steel-like body. Though it probably had one or two hidden skills, I didn’t care. Rather than waiting for it to use them, I decided to just kill it.

However, just when I thought that, its steel body began to boil. As Lotte said, it seemed to be preparing for something.

“What is that?”

[An opening, Hero!]

Right! Lotte flew forward at an incredible speed. Meanwhile, I compressed the elongated spear blade and enveloped it with my white aura and chaos flames. My skill of choice was Heroic Strike.

It seemed to be trying to transform its body to something. However, before its boiling body could complete the transformation, I reached it. Cutting off a transformation was one of the best feelings!

“Sacrifice!”

A black aura seemed to wrap itself over the spear blade. Realizing that the spear blade now contained an immense amount of power, I slightly hesitated to thrust forward. However, thinking that it was probably better to hurt myself than letting it do something suspicious, I thrust my spear forward.

[Critical Hit!]

My spear penetrated its body before the transformation completed. At the same time, I felt a heart rupturing amount of pain. It was as if someone squeezed my heart and set it aflame. The pain then spread through my body. Perhaps this was what being in lava felt like. Alternatively, it could be like being pierced with a thousand needles.

In an instant, everything within my sight turned white. This skill... I couldn’t take it lightly. The damage I took was one thing, but more importantly, it even stopped me from moving for a moment. If it didn’t finish the enemy, I would be vulnerable to the enemy’s attack.

That said, I was only taking 50% of the damage, while the enemy received 200% of the damage. Currently, with the enemy having bones and receiving a critical hit, the damage it took totaled to 600%. Whatever this golem-like thing was, it instantly exploded in the middle of its transformation. Blowing up a Floor Master... Sacrifice, I like you!

[A Grand Achievement! You defeated the Floor Master, ‘Superior Doppelganger’, alone! Amazing!]

[You became level 61. You obtained the qualification to challenge Beyond’s 10th floor.]

[You obtained 5 bonus stats.]

[You obtained the title, ‘Superior Doppelganger Slayer’. All stats permanently increase by 1. This effect will apply even if the title is not equipped.]

[You became Gold Rank 6. Congratulations.]

[You defeated the Superior Doppelganger alone. You obtained the special reward, ‘Superior Doppelganger’s Hat.’]

[You obtained 400,000 gold.]

[Choose your reward.]

[1. Weapon Swap Magic Book.]

After confirming its death, I fell on Lotte’s back. Right, if it didn’t die with how much damage I dealt to myself, I would be troubled. But doppelganger? I was right! After all, doppelgangers were closer to mimics than golems!

[Are you okay, Hero? It looked like you received a huge blow just now.]

“Yeah, I’m fine. In fact, this much pain makes me happy slightly. It snaps me awake, you know? It’s not like I like pain or anything, but it helps me not overestimate myself.”

[Wise words as expected of a warrior.]

I smiled at Lotte’s words while circulating Peruta Circuit and recovering. It seemed my HP never fell under 10%. After battling this Floor Master, I became certain about one thing.

Sacrifice had a clear flaw, but if used correctly, it would be of great help to me. It was probably best to use it with weaker skills to minimize the damage I took, or conversely with extremely powerful skills when I knew it would surely kill the enemy. Or perhaps, using this skill with Devourer could mitigate Sacrifice’s flaw.

“Anyways, it looks like I’m not the first one to clear this floor solo on my first try... Well, I guess it isn’t that surprising. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the same for the future floors.”

The world was infinite and full of outstanding explorers. There were undoubtedly other talented explorers who could defeat Floor Masters alone on their first try. In fact, Daisy probably could do it without much difficulty.

For now, I decided to look at the reward. Though I wasn’t expecting much, I quelled the thought and chose the reward. Immediately, a message rang out.

[You learned ‘Weapon Swap.’ By using 1,000 MP, you can instantly store the weapon in your hand into your inventory and replace it with another weapon. When empty-handed, you can instantly equip your weapon. Conversely, you can instantly unequip your weapon, becoming empty-handed. For 15 seconds after using Weapon Swap, your weapon’s performance increases by 10%. The buff duration and performance increase are enhanced with skill levels.]

“Huh?”

That wasn’t so bad! I was curious why something that sounded like a physical technique came in a magic book, but with an effect like this, it really was more like magic.

For example, if an enemy ambushed me while I was empty-handed, I could use Weapon Swap and instantly equip my spear. Although my spear would take the form of a choker, it was still easier to directly summon it in my hands than having to reach for it.

Plus, this skill would let me change between different battle methods. Weapon Swap’s strong point was being able to use it without any delay. Although I had to use 1,000 MP, that much was an expenditure I could easily handle. Plus, with this skill, I would be able to use different weapons depending on the situation, which I had found difficult to do in the heat of battle.

My Crossbow Marksmanship was high-ranked. Attacking enemies far away was significantly easier with a crossbow than a spear. If I felt like an enemy was nearing me, I would be able to swap to my spear instantly. I quite liked it.

Not to mention, I could now do something entirely new... Huhu.

“Alright, let’s start the grinding!”

Encouraged by the new skill that was better than my expectations, I jumped down from Lotte’s back so she could transform back to her human form. After all, she wouldn’t be able to leave through the door otherwise!

[Hero, Hero’s body is shaking.]

“I might be a bit anemic... Let’s rest for a bit...”

I almost forgot about the HP I lost from Sacrifice! Once I left the Floor Master room, I bought a Fatigue Recovery Juice and Special HP Recovery Meat Skewer from Loretta. It was only then that I continued with the Superior Doppelganger grinding.

[Kuaaaaaaa! Human, I will—]

“Die!”

Right when the Superior Doppelganger was about to transform with a villain-like line, I killed it with my spear. As this was today’s 10th fight or the last, I happily ended it with Sacrifice Heroic Strike. Now that I had felt the pain from Sacrifice a few times, I felt like I had gotten somewhat used to it. I trembled at my potential.

“Or maybe, I’m just becoming a pervert...”

Damn, I’d rather not have said it!

I resented my instincts and chose the item I desired from the reward list. The 60th floor also had strengthening elixir. It was none other than the ‘Mana Circulation Elixir.’

Somewhat like the other elixirs, the Mana Circulation Elixir raised my magic and charm by 1. Supposedly, it cleaned the internal pathway used for mana circulation and increased the quality of mana. Because of it, I felt like I was getting cleaner every time I ate one. It was undoubtedly a placebo effect.

It took exactly one hour to defeat the Superior Doppelganger 10 times. I’d kill one every 5 minutes and rested for a minute, so it was about right. These Superior Doppelgangers were rather easy to hunt. I just had to kill them before they transformed!

Although they appeared as a giant golem, the moment they received damage, they started transforming. As I’d never seen them complete their transformation, I still didn’t know what they were transforming into. My guess was that they took the form of the explorer that damaged it.

Since they started transforming after receiving damage, I easily killed them by taking their head with the first attack or by using two attacks before they finished their transformation. It was too obvious that their real attacks began after their transformation.

Although killing them with first blow was ideal, for explorers that weren’t confident in their attack power, it was probably better to kill them with their second attacks. After all, while they transformed, they were noticeably slower. Of course, if they couldn’t kill them by the second blow, it was better to just give up.

... Why was I talking about this?

When I left the Floor Master room with a tired expression, Loretta, who was waiting at the Floor Shop, smiled brightly and jumped on me.

“Shin-nim, that was the tenth, right? Then play with me. You can buy some items while you’re at it.”

“I think the ‘while I’m at it’ part is what you really want.”

“How rude! It’s half-half!”

I ignored Loretta’s pleading eyes and bought more of the relatively low-priced Fatigue Recovery Juice and HP Recovery Meat Skewers. Even as she sold them, Loretta tilted her head.

“Shin-nim, why do you need them? Didn’t you finish grinding for the day?”

“Ah, you see, Loretta... That’s because the second season of thrashing phase is beginning now.”

“Thrashing phase...?”

Loretta looked like she had heard the phrase before. Meanwhile, I snickered with an evil grin. That was what a thrashing phase was.

Ever since I went through the thrashing phase with Father, I always thought that it was more to alleviate the teacher’s stress than to help the student fix a habit. Now, I knew the answer. Fixing a student’s habit and alleviating a teacher’s stress. It was half-half!

[Crown Prince, I’m at the training room... Is it really happening?]

[I’ll be there in a moment, Ren!]

[Take your time, please!]

The thrashing phase full of Ren’s pain and my happiness was waiting.