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Chapter 112 - Don't Mind Me. I Am Just Passing Through.

As Liam ran as fast as he could, everything behind him was blasted to smithereens. The walls of the cave crumbled and completely blocked the path.

The four toads were not yet dead. They were simply injured, several parts of their body bleeding and their health constantly dropping, but they were not dead yet.

And unfortunately for them, they were still stuck behind the blocked debris and couldn't attack Liam any longer.

BAM BAM BAM

Their tongues kept lashing out at the debris trying to find a way through. Liam, however, did not wait for them to succeed and kept moving ahead.

He was not in the least upset that he hadn't obtained the kills for the toads.

He even had a big grin on his face because he had successfully completed the most difficult part of this dungeon!

This was the only part of the dungeon that he had an issue with. And now that he had cleared it, the rest of the run was going to be within his grasp.

Liam stopped as the next monsters of the dungeon appeared in front of him. Two ogres who were leaning against a corner looked up at him and ran towards him with their big clubs.

These two as well had a silver aura around them. They growled at Liam and swung their clubs around aiming to smash his head.

They had incredible agility so their swings were a blur, only barely visible but powerful blows that could completely shatter one's skull.

However, they were still unable to hit their target. Liam had already moved. He nimbly ducked down to dodge their attacks and he twisted his body to appear behind the two ogres.

His speed was at par with their movements as he was pushing his mana to all of his extremities and using it for physical movement enhancement.

Slash. Slash. Slash.

-20 -100 -20

Liam bitterly smiled as he eyed these pathetic damage numbers. This was exactly why he hadn't tried attacking the toads back.

All the elite bosses had incredible defense so the maximum damage numbers could never be brought out.

His crimson sword danced in between the ogres parrying their attacks.

He managed to evade three and only met one attack head on but the impact of the single attack made his entire body vibrate.

"I need to end this now." Liam ducked down again but this time, he also activated another skill at the same time.

[Venom Burst]

Instantly a puff of colorless venom filled the air and Liam jumped back stepping out of the poison cloud.

The two ogres, however, were not quick to react as they weren't aware of the toxicity of the venom.

Liam made sure to keep them within that area and sparred with them, avoiding their attacks.

Even though he only managed to marginally avoid their hits every time, he pushed his limits to the maximum.

The two ogres growled again and continued to swing their clubs at Liam but soon they began to feel sluggish. Their movements became wobbly and their vision blurred.

"Finally!" Liam's lips curled upwards.

The skill wasn't upgraded yet, so the effect was a bit delayed and the toxicity of the venom seemed to be low, but this was enough to give him an advantage.

Two strong elite ogres were tough opponents but two strong sluggish ogres were nothing. They might as well be stationary target practice dummies.

As the ogre's health trickled down, Liam started slashing at them with his sword. While his mana was slowly being recovered, he lined the ogre's muscular bodies with multiple sword injuries.

He grinded them down, small chunks of health at a time and a few minutes later, the two bulky ogres dropped to the ground with heavy thuds.

[Ding. Congratulations. You have killed the Elite Stone Ogre Soldier. You have gained 10000 experience points]

[Ding. Congratulations. You have killed the Elite Stone Ogre Soldier. You have gained 10000 experience points]

Liam picked up the couple of gold coins that fell to the side and under one of the thick ogre legs, there was also a skill book.

When he picked it up, he noticed also noticed a spiked metal chain.

As expected, the drop rate of the dungeon was nothing short of amazing. He only needed to kill two elites to get a skill book and a neck piece.

Liam quickly picked it up as well. He checked the skill book first and it looked like his luck was amazing.

[Fire Shield: Shroud the body in a blanket of flames for 15 seconds. All damages reduced by 50%. High probability to block a critical attack. Costs 40% of base mana.]

Liam nodded and was about to learn it, but he stopped and instead placed it in his inventory.

He wanted to see if he could himself manipulate his conjured flame in this fashion without the help of a skill book.

"I will work on that next time." He then looked at the neck piece. It was quite tacky but it provided a boost in both agility and strength.

So Liam quickly tossed it on before heading deeper into the dungeon.The narrow tunnel passage started becoming wider and wider and Liam could see various bones and human skeletons scattered around.

Now he was truly entering the depths of the demon's abode.

Liam slowed down as he knew that the enemy ahead was very formidable. This enemy was not like the ogres before, it was very different.

He could already hear its movements, as its huge body strutted around.

Liam paused. He sucked in a big breath of air and making sure that his condition was fully restored, he took the next step forward.

He was already here and he had made up his mind to clear this dungeon. So there was no turning back.

As the sound of the next opponent became louder and a figure emerged around the corner, Liam conjured a huge fire ball, compressing it as best as he could and he shot it forward.

Chapter 113 - Mad Cow

Boom! A loud explosion rattled but the figure that emerged after did not look one bit bothered by it.

[Demonic Minotar] (Elite Boss)

Level 42

The monster's head was like that of a grotesque cow with two huge horns coming out of its head. It snorted loudly and narrowed its bloodthirsty eyes, its gaze locked onto Liam.

"Who dares to trespass in my master's abode!"

The monster roared and without any warning, the scythe that was swirling in its hand flew out.

MoooOOO!

Liam instantly took a couple of steps back and just as he did the scythe struck the spot where he was previously standing.

"This is going to be difficult." A bead of sweat trickled down his forehead as his mind once again focused on evading.

However, his previous tactics were simply not going to be enough this time around. Unlike the ogres, this particular monster had extra thick skin or rather hide.

If he activated [Venom Burst] right now, it wouldn't affect the minotaur at all.

He first needed to make the monstrous cow somehow bleed and only then would he be able to carry out the cheat strategy.

But Liam was not worried about it. He had absolute confidence in his abilities. If he faltered here, then he might as well give up right now.

He was going to make this dungeon of terror his personal stepping stone.

"Shall we start?" Liam grinned.

As his feet nimbly moved, dodging the mad bull dashing towards him, his hand started pulling away some of the mana that he was using to boost his agility.

Because of this, his speed reduced a bit but at the same time, a ball of ice started materializing in front of him.

A quick look at 𝘣𝘦𝘥𝘯𝑜𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝑐𝑜𝑚 will leave y𝑜u more fulfilled.

At the early levels, manipulating the fire element was not that much different from manipulating the ice or the lightning element.

And since Liam had already successfully mastered the basics of mana manipulation, this part came to him naturally.

The ball of icy mana swirling in front of him suddenly dispersed like the wind and the next second, the floor of the cave where the minotaur was rushing towards him was covered with a sheet of thin slippery ice.

THUD!

The huge two-legged horned cow skidded on the floor, unable to balance at the last second, and fell down flat.

-1000

The damage number was also impressive as its own body weight was working against it.

Liam on the other hand used the slippery floor to skate and dodge the huge body falling towards him. This helped him pick up the speed that he had lost because of the mana consumption.

MOOOO! The minotaur roared in pain and sprang back up with anger spilling out of its flared nostrils.

It snorted and raised its hand to throw its scythe at Liam one more time, but the cow's weapon was lodged firmly in the ground because of the impact of the fall.

Liam used this chance when the monster was disoriented and sent another juicy fireball at it, aiming for its mouth, which was slightly starting to bleed.

The minotaur moved to try to avoid this attack but it once again became disoriented and fell flat on the thin ice on the cave floor.

-1000

Another huge chunk of its health dropped and this time some of its teeth shattered and dropped on the ground.

Liam tried his best to not be amused by this comical sight and hurriedly cast another attack.

This time he conjured a dense bolt of lightning and compressed it just like he did with the fireball attack.

He wanted to see which element attacks were more effective against this boss.

It might have slipped a couple of times because of his timely surprise attack, but Liam was not a fool to underestimate its skills.

It was an Elite boss after all and it had the distinct silver glow on its body.

BOOM! It roared again and a ripple of reddish black waves emanated from the beast's body.

The thin ice on the floor instantly shattered and disappeared and along with it, Liam's lightning bolt.

"Waves of madness!" Liam exclaimed. He quickly stopped casting spells and focused his mana on physical enhancement once again.

The minotaur rushed towards him like a crazed bull, rearing up again and again by scratching its hoofs on the ground.

It slammed its short hilt scythe at the puny human in front of it every chance it got.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Liam's body twisted and turned and every time he avoided the attack, it was a very narrow miss. Even one mistake would cost him his life.

But fighting with such heavy stakes made him that much more better and alert. He pushed himself to train his limited skills again and again.

He just needed one more chance. One small opening to sneak in an attack so that he could activate his [Venom Burst] and finish this fight.

However, the minotaur was a highly intelligent monster and it rampaged with anger, all its moves perfectly aimed at decimating the human in front of it.

Liam ducked, twisted, and jumped, doing everything he could to continue sparring with the cow but even after two minutes, he was unable to find that opening.

His mana was dropping fast and so was his stamina.

"This is not good. I need to do something fast." A cold glint flashed past his eyes as his movements began to slow down.

He was now only missing all the attacks by a hair and some of them even began to partially land, chipping away 5 to 10% of his health every time.

Moooo! The minotaur snorted haughtily. "Die! Insect! You dare enter my master's abode! Tremble before my might and die!"

Seeing that Liam was panting, it raised its scythe and rushed forward to hack his body, but at this exact same time, Liam suddenly moved, bursting with tremendous energy.

He as well dashed forward to meet the minotaur, the both of them attacking each other, but at the last minute, Liam leaned forward like an arrow and unsheathed his sword.Chapter 114 - First Come First Serve

[Slash]

A clean cut appeared on the minotaur's calf muscle and blood spurted out.

If it was only Liam who had been moving, this would have never happened but he used the beast's own momentum and finally drew the first blood.

-200

What a low damage output! Liam sneered. He did not look disheartened. This much was in fact enough for him.

[Venom Burst]

He immediately activated the next phase of his plan and downed a mana potion, before once again starting to focus completely on evading.

-50

-50

-50

Small dot damages started appearing on the minotaur and before long… the rampaging monster wobbled and lost most of its vigor.

"You! Tainted…"? The beast's words were cut short as Liam blasted one fire bullet after another, filling the cow-headed monster's body with a dozen bleeding bullet wounds.

And finally, after the last bit of health vanished, the minotaur fell down lifeless on the ground.

[Ding. Congratulations. You have killed the Elite Demonic Minotaur. You have gained 30000 experience points]

[Ding. Congratulations. You have leveled up]

[Ding. You have learned Basic Ice Manipulation Skill]

[Ding. You have learned Ice Blanket Skill]

[Ding. Your Ice Manipulation Skill is upgraded to intermediate]

[Ding. Your Ice element attacks are boosted by 5%]

Hovering over the list of notifications, Liam noticed that something was missing. "Eh? I didn't get any notifications for the lightning attack that I tried?"

"Did I not manipulate it well?"

He pondered about this for a bit as he needed this particular skill for crossing over to the next step.

It was only possible to use [Venom Burst] in certain portions of the dungeon. If one wanted to use this single loophole for the entire dungeon, that would be a fool's dream.

"I guess then I will just have to practice some more." Liam did not even bother looking around for any drops as he collapsed next to the minotaur's dead body and closed his eyes.

He had only finished 3 or rather 2 of the 10 battles that stood in his path, considering that the first fight was rather left unfinished and the four toads were still croaking in the distance.

But he was already completely exhausted. However, this was something Liam had expected.

Though he had relied heavily on his rare [Venom Burst] skill, it was only possible to defeat the elites because of his own determination.

He had constantly evaded critical lethal attacks and ground down the health of the bosses from millions to 0.

The three fights had taken him seven hours altogether and maintaining one's top mental focus for that much time was nothing to scoff at.

So he was currently fully drained.

Liam steadied his breathing and slowly recuperated inside the dark and dingy place.

After a while, he even ended up taking a nap inside the dungeon which helped with his mental exhaustion.

"Ok. Time to start hunting again."

Liam immediately did not leave the place and started to look around the minotaur's body for drops. He once again found a couple of gold coins and this time he also saw a scythe.

"A rare grade equipment… not bad."

He picked up the scythe and as he examined it in his hand, he saw another thing sparkling from the corner of his eyes.

A golden insignia.

Liam quickly tossed the scythe into his inventory and then grabbed the insignia. "This should take care of some of my money problems. He He."

He placed the insignia into his inventory as well and kicked the minotaur around to see if any more drops were left behind.

Only then did he reluctantly leave.

Unfortunately, he had to leave this minotaur corpse as well behind as it was above his level and he didn't want to suffer more injuries by trying to revive dead monsters above his level.

So just like the two ogres, the minotaur was also unusable.

If he had been able to bring over a few undeads, the next fight would indeed be simpler, but because of the toads at the entrance and the strategy he had chosen to walk past them, this was next to impossible.

So for now, he had to fight without the help of any summons.

Liam walked past the wide passage which opened up into a vast forest. It was so big that one could easily get lost in it which was also one of the challenges of the dungeon.

There were different traps at different corners of this dungeon, but for someone who already knew the path too well, this was not an issue.

Liam gazed at the landscape in front of him and then turned to the northeast to start heading deeper when something on his side caught his eye.

"Is this…??? What the hell!" He strayed away from the main path and dashed to his right instead where a small bed of violet-colored plants was growing.

He bent down to pluck one of them and smelled.

[Ding. You obtained a stalk of purple tendril]

"I knew it!"

The bed of violet plants was in fact herbs.

In fact, everywhere he looked around, there were herbs. Common herbs, rare herbs, precious herbs. There was lots and lots of everything.

They were spread out, growing in clusters, in patches, under trees, near bushes, across the vast forest.

It had always puzzled him that a supposed 'demon's abode' included such a huge forest as a back garden but now it made sense.

Was this whole place just a field for various herbs? If that was the case then those who entered first would have had the privilege of taking away all the herbs!

What a harvest!

Sucking in a big breath of air, Liam got down to business. He tried to stick to his 'safe' path while simultaneously collecting all the herbs that he could spot.

With this haul, leveling up alchemy skills was going to be as easy as eating a cake but he first needed to clear the dungeon and get out.

Chapter 115 - Zap! Zap! Zap!

[Ding. You have obtained a stalk of Ripe Root]

[Ding. You have obtained a stalk of Ripe Root]

…

…

Liam continued heading deeper into the demon's private forest, looting every single herb that entered his field of vision.

For the most part, he stuck to the 'safe' route but after a while, he purposefully did a detour.

"Time to start training." Liam stretched his hands and then picked up a stone to throw it into a nearby bush.

Almost instantly, something sprang out of the bush and dashed towards him.

Zala Zala Zala

It was a big green lizard that was almost invisible to the naked eye. Its green-colored skin merged with the grassy ground as its figure slithered amidst the tall grass.

[Demonic Venomous Chameleon] (Elite Boss)

Level 35

"Oh! A level 35 elite! This should be perfect for me." Liam grinned and didn't waste time as he enhanced his agility and movements by churning his mana.

The elite in front of him was too fast. It zigged and zagged cutting through the grass, its tail lashing at Liam. Not to mention it was highly poisonous.

Its venom was also not weak like Liam's [Venom Burst] skill.

A single hit from it would make him lose this fight and perhaps even send him straight to death's door.

But the beast had its own weakness and Liam was planning on exploiting exactly this. He had provoked this beast for this specific purpose.

[Lightning Bolt] Liam muttered as he jumped up and evaded the crawling lizard. More powerful magic spells required a certain amount of cast time, but this was a basic spell.

So he was able to cast it even when evading the attack but he took the system's help for it. If he had to cast it on his own, he was still not proficient enough to do it this casually while moving.

Zap!

The lizard that slithered on the tall grass yelped in pain as the attack hit its body. Liam meanwhile, landed on a small rock nearby and jumped once again.

[Lightning Bolt]

He spammed the skill one more time and again the lizard yelped in pain.

Surprisingly, even with its cries of pain, its health was still as solid as the rock that Liam used to push down and jump.

And every time it was the same.

The attack landed on the beast, it cried in pain, but the damage number was pathetic.

And yet Liam continued to do cast the attack.

This was because this particular beast was most susceptible to lightning-type attacks.

While the attack did not affect its health much, it soaked up its agility like a sponge.

After casting the basic [Lightning Bolt] spell a few times, its speed had already reduced considerably.

Now Liam no longer needed to run and jump around as if his life depended on it.

He slowed down and made more of a conscious effort in casting the spell.

[Lightning Bolt] He manipulated his mana and conjured a ball of lightning but he did not send it out immediately.

Instead, he again tried increasing it and compressing it just like he had done with the fireball. Only then he sent it out.

However, this time also he wasn't successful.

This attack's damage was in fact worse than the previous attacks when he simply used the system's help for the spell casting.

Tsk. Tsk. Liam clicked his tongue in disappointment. He did not give up and tried this a few more times.

Sure, by the time he was done practicing, the lizard was only barely moving and its tongue was pale and sticking out.

Its health had also dropped considerably, but Liam was not satisfied.

He knew that he was doing something wrong.

He conjured another ball of lightning and looked at it, his eyes carefully observing the crackling mass of energy.

The more he looked at it, the more he felt like he was missing something important.

"Hmmm." He tossed the lightning ball absent-mindedly at the lizard and then conjured a ball of fire. "Why am I able to do this but not this?"

He then started repeatedly tossing both balls of fire and lightning one after the other at the almost dead lizard which was now begging him with its eyes to just end the fight.

He wanted to understand this better and suddenly an idea struck him.

Explore the extended edition on 𝒃𝙚𝙙𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝒍.𝒐𝙧𝒈.

[Fire Ball] and [Lightning Bolt] were basically two different attacks that relied on two different elements.

While he was able to manipulate one, he was not successful in the other. Why?

This was precisely because these two were different!

Liam's eyes widened as he conjured another ball of lightning but this time, he didn't try to manipulate it by buffing it and compressing it.

He instead tried to send it out as fast as he could, aiming for the lizard. He put his full focus and concentration on the speed aspect of the attack.

ZAP!

There was an improvement! The sound and impact this time was louder and also the accompanying damage number.

"Not enough!" Liam paused for a moment and conjured another ball of lightning again, but this time he tried to change its shape.

He manipulated the ball of energy into a sharp, pointed arrow and sent it out, even doing the action of pulling his hand back and then releasing it.

ZOOM!

Bingo! Just like he had expected, the arrow shot forward with tremendous speed, and it struck the lizard right in the middle of its head.

Kuhak!

This was the limit of the beast. The lizard spat out blood, its head rolling lifelessly on the ground and Liam got all the notifications that he wanted.

He had finally managed to do the maximum damage.

[Ding. Congratulations. You have killed the Elite Demonic Venomous Chameleon. You have gained 20000 experience points]

[Ding. You have learned Basic Lightning Manipulation Skill]

[Ding. You have learned Lightning Arrow Skill]

[Ding. Your Lightning Manipulation Skill is upgraded to intermediate]

[Ding. Your Lightning element attacks are boosted by 5%]