Return to Jorgaldur Volume I: the battle mage

Last floor

His withdrawal wasn't easy. The worm boss chased him using Metal Spring and shooting acid rain, forcing him to dodge and not allowing him to follow a straight path. He even needed Feline Response once.

But the biggest shock he received was, when having reached the tunnel and feeling safe, the worm followed him inside, using even Metal Spring again to pounce on him.

Eldi received a strong blow that threw him backwards, although there was no serious injury. And, luckily, the huge worm couldn't shoot while it was encased in a passage too narrow for its size. But in spite of being a place too small, the monster tried to advance towards its prey.

Once recovered from the initial shock, Eldi still struggled to assimilate that the monster was acting like that, but he didn't want to waste the opportunity and approached to attack, now that it couldn't move. However, it wasn't going to be that easy. The boss used its Suction skill, drawing the high human to its open mouth. It had no teeth, but that didn't make it any less dangerous. And in the closed space of the tunnel, that skill was more effective.

He used Stand with one of the spears and grabbed onto it to avoid being swallowed. However, his sweat-dampened hands slipped little by little, causing him to panic as he tried desperately to cling to it. And, when he was about to lose touch with the spear, the skill ended.

Eldi breathed a sigh of relief, but soon the worm made the gesture to try again, so Eldi ran in the opposite direction, using even Kangaroo Power to propel himself. He had to hold on to the stone protruding from the wall, and to another spear, to avoid being absorbed, and then get away from the influence zone.

Meanwhile, the first spear that he had left on the floor was just peeling off and being absorbed by the monster, with such bad luck that it stuck into the inside of its mouth. A kind of difficult-to-describe roar of pain invaded the tunnel, until a new use of Suction managed to take it out, though tearing the soft flesh of the inside in the process.

The worm had lost a considerable amount of health from a single spear wound, something that gave an idea to Eldi, who wielded the bow again. And when the worm opened its mouth in a new attempt to suck him, he started shooting arrows with fire.

Before it closed its mouth, up to five arrows were nailed inside. And when it opened it to try to remove them with Suction, as it had done with the spear, more arrows joined the first ones.

Eldi had set two spears with Stand, to help him keep his balance and not be dragged, enough given the distance. He just shot arrows again and again, adding fire to each of them.

Little by little, the health of the huge worm decreased, because its insides weren't protected neither against physical attacks nor magic, and only the big pool of health had delayed the inevitable. And when it was finally defeated and ended up disappearing, there was an assistant who had a lot of work collecting all the arrows scattered on the ground.

And as in the previous one, the cave had fungi and metal veins, which were collected before going to the bottom floor.

He was tired but not too much, so he decided to explore that floor a little.

"Shit!" He exclaimed when suddenly he was immobilized.

A dark creature with eight legs appeared just at that moment, taking the opportunity to attack its prey and inject its poison, but the Burning Aura that Eldi carried as protection, and to illuminate a bit his surroundings, burned the web that was imprisoning him, allowing him to face his enemy. It was a web whose material is solidified mana, and not that of natural spiders.

Eldi wielded the axe to attack the thin legs that shouldn't be able to sustain the body of a being of one and a half meters tall, so the level 25 cave spider was immobilized, and killed shortly afterwards. It isn't a very powerful monster nor does it have any special resistance, but its camouflage and its traps make it dangerous. It can both lay spider webs and use holes in the ground.

After the first encounter he decided to rest, reviewing the skills he remembered of those spiders, and planning the best course of action.

So, the next morning, Eldi went through the tunnels slower, using a spear in one hand and an axe in the other. Although they were two-handed and he couldn't use them to fight unless he would release one of them, they served him for his purpose. With the spear, he was checking the ground for traps, while the axe was being moved in front of him, looking for spider webs. And both weapons were imbued with fire.

Maybe it was somewhat tedious, but he didn't have major problems, since once discovered their ambushes, they weren't formidable enemies, nor do they usually work in groups. The most he found was two of them at once, and he didn't need to drink any of his antidotes, because, despite some injuries, the poison wasn't too strong and could be counteracted with Regenerate. If they had been of a higher level, it would have been more dangerous, not only because of a most powerful venom, but because of its paralyzing effects.

And, once again, the findings of veins of metal and fungi were somewhat more abundant, although they were still only copper and tin. In addition to a new type of fungus with astringent effects, that could be processed into a healing potion quite effective against superficial wounds.

But the relative peace of the dungeon was broken when he arrived at the cavern in which the floor boss was and, therefore, the dungeon boss. He guessed it was a giant spider, and he feared that there would be more spiders in the place, but he was unable to know. Bat's Hearing warned him of the danger that was ahead, but he only saw a dense tangle of spider webs.