6 Chapter 6
Landing in the terrain, Issei was met with a beautiful sight. Nestled on the side of a cliff, amidst a blanket of elegant snow, stands a majestic castle, its unparalleled against the backdrop of the rugged terrain. The castle, constructed from weathered stone, holds towering spires reaching towards the heavens and sturdy walls that have withstood the test of time.
The surrounding landscape is a winter wonderland, with snow-capped peaks stretching as far as the eye can see. The air is clear, filled with the soft sound of wind whispering through the evergreen forests that cloak the lower slopes of the mountain. Looking upon the sight in awe, Issei couldn't help but feel excited wanting to explore the castle far away from him. However, his thoughts were interrupted when he was met with a huge crystalized being.
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Name: Ice Golem (Mini-Boss)
Race: Crystal Golem
HP: 2000/2000
Level: 14
STR: 20
AGL: 5
END: 40
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Buffs and de-buffs have been applied:
+30 % damage reduction from Player
+30 % damage increase against Player
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The first enemy that Issei sees is a higher leveled golem... Not only that, but it was a mini boss. The number of hit points and the amount of damage reduction that he would have to deal with was already annoying. The agility of the monster was horrendous, but he would need to take precautions because he didn't know if he could survive a single hit against this thing.
Taking out his sledgehammers, Issei watched as the thing began slowly walking towards him, shaking the ground with each step.
Noticing the many disproportions of the monster, the legs being very narrow and slim compared to its upper body, Issei began formulating a plan. However, the golem quickly jumped towards Issei, aiming to crush him with his gigantic arms. Narrowly dodging the attack, Issei watched as the ground shook as ice and snow debris flowed through the air from the after math of the slam. Seizing his opportunity, Issei swung his hammer as hard as he could and slammed it straight into the slim legs of the monster.
As he expected, he did barely anything to the monster. Swinging again while the golem began getting up slowly from its previous attack, Issei began chipping away at the thing. Backing away right as the golem fully stood up, Issei watched as the golem began slowly turning towards him. Noticing how slow the turn speed was, Issei used his immense speed and appeared right behind the golem and swung his sledgehammers simultaneously at the same spot he had been attacking.
As expected, nothing happened...
Backing away, he noticed that the health pool of the monster was barely decreasing. It begged the question, should Issei just run away? The chances of him messing up and getting touched versus him chipping away at the monster and eventually winning was... unfair. He knew that he would mess up sooner than he would expect.
No... He couldn't give up just yet. Backing away more, Issei began assessing his surroundings. Turning to see a large cave opening nearby... Issei hoped that maybe there was something that he could find there. Running towards the cave opening, ignoring the golem behind him slowly trailing after him, Issei, at immense speeds, reached the cave opening to find... Nothing.
That was until he felt a small bit of water landing on him... Looking up, Issei noticed huge icicles hanging on the edge of the cave... They weren't regular icicles either, they were glowing a deep blue color.
That was when Issei got an idea... Running into the cave, Issei took in his surroundings. Issei entered a realm of sheer wonder as he stepped into the cave's mouth. Light refracted off translucent crystal formations, painting the walls with a kaleidoscope of colors. The floor, a mosaic of shimmering minerals, sent ripples of light dancing beneath his feet. A sapphire-hued lake stretched out like a mirror, reflecting the cavern's crystals with a magical clarity. Above, crystalline stalactites adorned the ceiling, casting delicate patterns across the expanse. Every corner revealed new wonders, from frozen waterfalls to intricate sculptures. Issei felt awe wash over him, treading upon sacred ground in this extraordinary sanctuary. However, seeing the many huge crystal stalactites above glowing with even larger aura than the ones in the entrance, Issei knew that this place was a death trap to anyone chaotically exploring.
There were stalactites easily five times larger than him hanging on the ceiling, which was easily thirty meters in height. Slowly but assuredly, the golem began making his way towards the inside of the cave. With each footstep shaking the entire cave's inside. Smirking, this was Issei's only idea left... Standing in the middle of the cave's main area right near the sapphire lake, Issei turned around to see the Golem making his way towards him. Breathing in to calm himself, Issei watched as the Golem was right in front of him before throwing his sledgehammer straight into the air.
Confused, the golem looked up...
*BAM*
Issei rushed straight into the sapphire lake to hide from the overwhelming onslaught as all the sharp stalactites nailed straight onto the ground. Most of them landing straight onto the Golem. The largest stalactite was easily the same size as the golem, landing straight onto the golem and shattering upon impact, however, the icicle wasn't a normal one. When shattering, a huge blue-magical explosion occurred which led into a cluster-bomb effect as all the other icicles began exploding. The golem was in crossfire, each blow began shattering the armor that the Golem had and causing the golem to bob its body back and forth from the impact.
*SHATTER*
The continuous onslaught of stalactites had shattered the golem completely.
Even Issei wasn't safe from all the pain. Some of the largest icicles had landed on him, hurting him severely, but not enough to kill him. One of the sharp icicles had pierced right through his shoulder and exploded... But nevertheless, Issei had won the battle. Getting out of the shimmering lake, Issei was bleeding, but he was able to handle the pain. He was just glad he didn't have to face the golem anymore.
"Fuck... That... was... rough."
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Achievement Completed: Beat your first mini boss
Reward: Level Up x 2
Achievement Completed: Beat an enemy while being lower leveled
Reward: Random Weapon (Common-Rare)
Secret Quest Completed: Defeat the Guardian Golem
Detail: Defeat the guardian golem that has been stationed to be in front of the cave of sapphire.
Reward: Level Up x 1
Skill obtained: Tank
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The number of rewards he got... Holy shit.
But Issei was curious about this new skill. Clicking on the question mark button next to the skill, Issei got a detailed explanation of the skill.
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Skill Name: Tank
Level 1
Details: The skill allows for someone to, using 1 MP per second, to increase their endurance and strength by 5 percent. Upon activating the skill, the user will be able to heal their health by 10 percent, once per battle.
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Oh... That was a nice skill to get. Anything that would boost his strength and endurance he would gladly take.
Next thing he knew... Issei felt something huge bang his head and caused him to fall down while rubbing his head. In front of him was a huge, colossal size sword.
"Holy shit! That's huge!"
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Weapon Name: The Original Great Sword
Rarity: Rare
Attributes: +10 Strength
-2 Agility
Requirement: 20 STR
Details: Take a huge lump of steel and place it on a handle. Shape it into a sword easily two meters tall, and here you have the Great Sword.
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Widening his eyes, this was the jackpot! How did his luck turn this great? To get such a powerful weapon... He was very lucky to get this. Immediately equipping the sword, Issei adjusted his new stats and smirked.
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Name: Issei Hyoudou
Title: None
Level: 14
HP: 325/1050
MP: 400/400
STR: 20 (+10)
AGL: 18 (-2)
END: 18 (+3)
INT: 16
Skill Points: 0
Bonus: 10% damage reduction
Skills: Tank
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There was one thing that Issei noticed. When he was equipping the Great Sword, he couldn't equip one of his sledgehammers. Was there a problem with his stats or was it supposed to be the same weapon that can be dual-wielded?
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Dual-Wielding: To dual-wield a weapon, you must have 50% more stats that the requirement of your most powerful weapon.
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Well, that answered his question.
Ignoring that, Issei gripped the handle of his Great Sword with both of his hands, loomed it over his shoulder and began walking around the lake. Now that he was able to explore without the threat of someone, he wondered, was there hidden treasure around?
Walking around, Issei had found more enemies to fend off against. However, they were far weaker than whatever behemoth that he fought before. They were so much weaker to the point where even after killing the entire group of them in the cave, he hadn't leveled up once. While Issei began wandering down the cave, he found this interesting door. There were some interesting lines and symbols, he was questioning what they meant, but nevertheless, he opened the door. Over the course of his exploration, his body slowly recovering to the point where he was back at peak condition again.
Issei walked into the room... Well, more like an entire hallway. Knowing that this place might have traps, Issei grabbed a decent size boulder with his hands by ripping it apart from the ground behind him and threw it straight through the hallway. The hallway seemed to have stretched on forever. The moment the boulder was thrown into the hallway... Nothing happened. Not a single trap was activated.
Was there any traps to begin with?
Running into the hallway at max speed, Issei was surprised to see that there was nothing that was being activated. Sighing in relief a little, Issei began slowing his pace down. Continuously throwing the boulder in front of him to make sure that he wasn't walking into any dangerous traps, Issei felt as if this entire hallway was safe. He still had a long ways to go before he could say that there were guaranteed no threats.
However, the moment Issei made it to the middle of the room... That was when the same fog that spawns his enemies began surrounding him. The entire hallway was filled with fog.
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Horde Apocalypse Incoming
Objective: Defeat 1000 enemies
Defeated: 0/1000
Reward: Titanite
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"Aw shit... Here we go again."
Grabbing onto his sword and preparing to swing at his first opponent to show up, Issei watched as crystal like... humanoid being began showing themselves. They weren't large like the golem from earlier, but they were definitely larger than him by a slight margin.
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Name: Crystalized Brutes
Race: Crystal Humanoids
Level: 12
HP: 500/500
MP: 300/300
STR: 15
AGL: 8
END: 10
INT: 12
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Here we went again... Activating Tank and seeing his body grow slightly while his health and strength increased by 5 percent, Issei knew where their weakness was and was going to make sure that this was going to be quick.
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Applying buffs and de-buffs:
+20% damage reduction from opponents
+20% damage inflicted onto opponents
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And he had the advantage in levels.
