Chapter 114: Another Boss Rush

Even after defeating the Dream Eater Arachnoid, my vision still doesn't return to normal, which makes asking Kayafe about it a priority. [Inquisitive Perfection] isn't worried; it seems to think that it is only a temporary effect. A skill like [Mana Manipulation] can affect other skills – mostly spells, and skill-spells – but it definitely shows that skills can affect other skills in some ways. So it's possible that the Arachnoid simply inflicted a vision loss effect with a certain duration – probably a poison of some sort, that would fit its Bond. I looked at my magic frameworks, and they don't seem changed at all, so the damage should be superficial.

However, the fear center of my brain doesn't care for logic or evidence and is threatening to cause an anxiety attack, giving [Clear Mind] a run for its money and forcing me to use [Acting] to remain calm and still my body.

Soon. I tell myself. Once I get my Bond to level five hundred, I can talk to her; I will have to anyway, to ask about classes.

With the Dream Eater Arachnoid dead, I can continue scouting this floor, so I start to expand my vision slowly. The first boss I see is one that really makes me question the limit of Race evolutions: a Magma Arachnoid, another one that I'll have trouble doing damage against.

Magma Arachnoid (Grand), Level 413 Obsidian Shredder, Level 387 Glass Bond

Magma is one of those weird essences; it is a liquid and therefore is a water element, since the water element governs liquidity; however, it has a deep identity in heat and thus also is a fire essence. The only way it truly works is as a fused mana of water and fire. Obsidian is just volcanic glass, and I can see that it’s a Bond Class. It has high amounts of vitality and mana and doesn't appear to have fleshy organs, but rather obsidian in place of them. Our usual strategy against Arachnoids may not work against this one.

With Esofy telling me the boss's levels, I continue on, the second boss I see making me gleeful.

Mana-Blooded Arachnoid (Grand), Level 416 Mana Puppeteer, Level 298 Lightning Bond

With a name like that, I can only hope that we can get a material that continually produces mana like the Mana Slime Core. With enough of those, we can hopefully have an airship that requires no mana to upkeep its enchantments, meaning that it can fly indefinitely.

Wind Walking Arachnoid (Grand), Level 414 Air Blade, Level 400 Wind Bond

A flying ten-legged spider. It seems to have a Warrior Bond Class, but could also be a mage who shoots out wind blades. This one may be easy, if Uloru can ground it with heavier gravity.

As my perception reveals the last boss, an Arachnoid covered in eyes, all of its eyes move to look in my direction, and I immediately feel like I am being watched, a strong pressure as if a million eyes are staring right at me. This would be enough to scare anyone else, but I know what it is doing, and two can play that game!

I crank up my perceptive pressure to the max, as much as my five hundred seventy-six enhanced skill level will allow me. The entire floor erupts in panic, Arachnoids running all over the place. Thousands of Arachnoids dive into their nests, egg sacs erupt prematurely, and baby Arachnoids scurry about. The many-eyed Arachnoid cowers in fear, and I feel its perceptive pressure disappear as Esofy and the others jump.

"Eeep!" Chyzu lets out a squeak of fright, then turns toward me angrily. "Alysara!"

"S-s-sorry…" I mute say, tapping my index finger together. "One of the bosses tried using perceptive pressure on me, and I was just teaching it a lesson…"

"You have to give us a warning, Alysara," Jowaru says, just as Esofy opens her mouth to say the same thing.

"Yeah, plus, if another monster is capable of doing it too then we need to know if it's you or an enemy," Esofy says.

"I'm sorry,” I apologize sheepishly,;”I'll let you know when I'm going to use it."

I need to figure out a way to localize my perceptive pressure, it shouldn't be too hard. Maybe I can keep a normal perceptive pressure around me and lower it the farther out it goes, which would let me still see without facing retaliation?

As we make our way to the first boss, I work on trying to localize my perceptive pressure. With normal monsters at levels of high two hundred and in the Major tier, it is a slow endeavor, so I have plenty of time.

Localizing my perception is basically the same process as changing its size, only with the ‘pressure’ aspect isolated from the whole. It takes some work, but by the time we reach the boss I have managed to do it.

Ting! Sense Magic has obtained levels 577-581!

As the group rests from their battles, I do my usual tests with the Magma Arachnoid. It conjures a swirling storm of small, sharp obsidian blades to cut and slice through anything nearby. As the obsidian storm rages, it attacks with its fangs and legs, making defending against the obsidian hard. However, with proper preparation and use of my [Mana Manipulation], I think I may be able to make it a non-factor in our battle. The boss displays other abilities, such as breathing fire and forming up to five blades of obsidian to swing around. My job in this fight is not to kill the Arachnoid, but to hinder its abilities as much as I can. Jowaru can't hold off all of the blades at once, so I will need to use my [Mana Manipulation] to interfere with the boss's spells.

I start by making armor, thick gambeson armor made of air mana which I'll be repairing as needed during the battle. The armor covers the wearer from head to toe and even to the tip of the tail. It is enchanted to let light and air through the hood, so there doesn't need to be any gaps. Interwoven in the armor is ice silk, to give resistance to the Magma Arachnoid's heat and fire.

With the armor done, my part of the preparations is complete. We enter the room and take formations with Jowaru at the front, as usual, and Esofy and Kadona next, taking the flanks. Tana is behind Jowaru and will take potshots at mid-range with his vitality-draining flames. Uloru will be using Jowaru as cover and jumping out to do damage when the opportunity arises. Chyzu is countering the fire breath with her water, while Irela is on her normal duty.

The battle turns to a slugging match. We try to use the usual ‘nail strategy’, but with no proper organs, it doesn't work. The only thing we can do is keep hacking and cutting until it stops moving. I am unable to completely stop the obsidian blades, but I can slow them down enough that they can be dodged or blocked. The glass storm continually wears away the gambesons, requiring me to constantly weave patches directly onto them. In addition to making sure everyone stays safe, I localize my perceptive pressure around the Magma Arachnoid, making it hyper-paranoid and drawing its attention away from the others.

The fight drags on and on; with each leg cut off, a new one forms out of magma and solidifies a new 'chitin'… which is just a layer of hard rock. Esofy and Kadona take a few good hits, but Tana is able to patch them up. We take this fight at a slow and steady pace, and eventually, it can't regrow its legs anymore, and the last of its vitality burns away.

Ting! Your party has killed a Magma Arachnoid (Grand), Level 413; extra experience has been rewarded for being under-leveled.

Ting! Your Bond has obtained level 498!

With the Dream Eater Arachnoid also giving me a level to my Bond, I now only need two more levels!

Not using my Class has been annoying at times, and I can see why it's a deal-breaker for prospective Bond Classes. I have my [Mana Manipulation] to help me when I don't want to level up my Class, but most people won't have that option; they'll have to use their Class, schedule their skill breakthroughs and hope they don't get any by accident, or have to give themselves some leeway. This means they have to limit how strong they are, and have to work twice as hard to get levels for their Bond.

Bond Classes are definitely for the higher end of power, those willing to bide their time and play the long game. It takes a lot of work and can leave one more vulnerable than they'd like, so getting to that point is difficult, but once you are at the 'late game', that's when it really shines. Look at Esofy and Chyzu, for example; they don't have to hold back like me and Tana, although Esofy did end up with a Bond Class, so maybe she will have to.

Anyway, I unsheathe my Wolf Pack Dagger and try cutting into the Magma Arachnoid to retrieve the materials, but I am unable to cut the rocky layer. Instead, Esofy has to do it with her void scythe.

Magma Core: The core of a Magma Arachnid, can spin magma webs.

Interesting. I might be able to turn it into an item that mana weaves magma silk. I can do it with my skill, but the curse on it will also generate opposing mana inside me and hurt me, so this presents an intriguing safe alternative.

The next boss we face is the one that I really want to see the loot from.

"Don't destroy its organs; we need more materials that can produce mana," I request. It will take longer to kill the Arachnoid, but, as the previous boss shows, it can be done.

Irela grumbles something about wasting time.

"What do we need it for?" Esofy asks. Obviously, if it's something petty, she'll veto my request.

"For the airship," I reply honestly. "The enchantments on it will have a huge mana upkeep on them, but if it can produce its own mana, we can hopefully have an airship that can house an entire village."

Esofy lets out a long sigh, "Alright, but if we get in trouble, we'll do what is necessary."

As I test the boss, I quickly realize that it has [Mana Manipulation] as well. It is the same magic circle in its Class skill slot, just with six breakthroughs instead. Something Kayafe said comes to mind, that dungeon monsters spawn with only three or four breakthroughs and less than half the possible levels.

The Mana Puppeteer doesn't even have the ability to cast spells and seems more specialized in just controlling mana, as the Class name suggests. The fight to control the mana is much harder than I thought it would be, given our respective levels in the skill. But, thinking about it, it makes sense: its skill is getting Class bonuses, and, since it has a higher level overall, it has more stats than I do, so it's an even match. It would perhaps favor the Arachnoid more if it had tens in all its breakthroughs; but with its primary ability hindered, it is an easy fight.

The Arachnoid and I clash with our manipulation while the others fight, as it slings lightning with its subpar Bond. Irela simply erects a faraday cage, and they let Tana drain its vitality. When the time is right, I burn away the last of its life with a charged spear.

Unfortunately, the battle isn't even worth a single Bond level. I watch as mana condenses into the heart to fuel its transformation into a magic material, then I cut into the abdomen and take out its heart.

Mana Heart: The heart of a mana-blooded creature, this heart produces 700 points of mana and ejects it into the surroundings.

Normally this type of material would be subpar, even with its higher mana production; however, it's perfect for what we need. If it can pump mana throughout the airship, we won't need to space out the mana-producing materials; the airship will be able to have a mana heart as a pseudo-core. Combined with the Mana Slime's core, we have twelve hundred points of mana production. That’s almost nothing compared to mine, which is in the tens of thousands, and, to power a whole village, it will need at least a hundred thousand per hour. Still, the more the better, as we can draw mana from it or use it for other things until we have enough for the airship.

My test of the Wind Walking Arachnoid reveals that it prefers to stay at a distance and bombard me with wind blades. However, I see that it specifically needs its legs to walk on the air, as the air solidifies under its feet. To solidify it using other body parts is likely a breakthrough that it doesn't have.

For our preparation, I weave a net of gravity essence – using mana that is happily provided by Uloru – and wind resistance armor in the form of earth silk gambesons.

Starting the fight, I pressure the boss with my perception while Irela shephards it lower to the ground with a cyclone of blades. Finally, with a surge of gravity, the boss tumbles to the ground, and Esofu, Uloru, and Kadona pounce on it, hacking at the legs. The Arachnoid frees itself with a sudden burst of air, but I am ready for it when it tries to flee upward, bringing it back down by removing the air under its feet with a void spell.

Tana and Jowaru toss the net on the boss, and Uloru uses her gravity manipulation to make it harder to escape. Esofy manages to get a lucky hit in and cleave off two legs at once while Uloru crushes a third. Kadona chops a fourth leg; Irela combines all of her metal into a spike and drops it onto the back of the boss, aided by Uloru’s gravity. Seizing the opportunity, Uloru hammers the spike in, and the metal starts tearing up the boss's organs.

The boss manages to throw everyone off and starts shooting blades in every direction in hopes of stopping the metal from making paste of its innards. Everyone just stands behind Jowaru and waits for the boss to die.

Ting! Your party has killed a Wind Walking Arachnoid (Grand), Level 414; extra experience has been rewarded for being under-leveled.

Ting! Your Bond has obtained level 499!

With one more level to go, we move onto the many-eyed Arachnoid, [Analyzing] it along the way.

All Seeing Arachnoid (Grand), level 419 Doom Gaze (Grand), level 298 Fire Bond.

I don't like the sound of its Class name, and I imagine something like a medusa that can turn someone to stone. It clearly specializes in sensing and sight skills, so invisibility may be the way to go, but it may have a way to see past that. We could easily kill it if we had brought that assassin ring, but we don't have it with us.

For now, I send in a clone to test it. I pressure the boss with my perception and have my clone walk openly into the room, assuming the role and look of a warrior of death, a grim knight with skulls for pauldrons and a bone greatsword; with the help of illusion spells, I create an ominous and dark aura. As the clone walks in, I increase the perceptive pressure to the max.

Ting! You have gained the Fear Gaze general skill!

Ting! You have too many general skills; would you like to remove one or keep what you have?

Hmm, a gaze skill? Can I attack anything within my perception? How far does that go? Can I turn things into stone with a different gaze skill? [Fear Gaze] is a general skill, which means it's probably not lethal, so a lethal skill will probably be a Class skill. If I can gain a Class focused on weaponizing my perception, with how large the area is and how far I can move it... that might be a little overpowered.

Gah! I need more general skill slots! But I also don't want to drop [Tailoring] because I need the levels to get my second Class!

Can I hold onto it? Let's see, I was offered [Soul Damage Reduction] again but never did anything with it.

Ting! You have gained the Soul Damage Reduction general skill!

Ting! You have too many general skills; would you like to remove one or keep what you have?

I still have the messages, so I guess it stays until I say yes or no; good to know. Sorry, system, but you'll have to wait for an answer.

With a name like Doom Gaze, this means that it's all the more to be worried about, but... it fell for my illusion? This means that it can't tell if it's fake, and that means invisibility will work, or maybe it's sight or sensing skills just don't have the right breakthrough; dungeon monsters are skill deficient after all.

The Arachnoid's abilities soon become apparent as flames erupt around my clone, then lasers shoot out of its eyes and I see sleep essence and fear essence building up around my clone. The boss is in a panic, doing anything it can to kill the aspect of death standing in front of it. The poor thing is absolutely terrified.

It doesn't have any instant-kill attacks; it definitely won't have the requisite breakthroughs for such a thing, which means it's just another mage-type monster. I make the necessary preparations, and then the group charges in with the usual formation, Jowaru taking a barrage of spells. With [Figment of Reality], I make three duplicates of each of us to divert attacks away as the real Esofy and Kadona flank the boss and start cutting off legs. Since each leg has many eyes on it, it also removes eyes that can use gaze attacks.

Irela and Chyzu blind the Arachnoid with ice spears and metal blades. With each eye lost, fewer attacks come our way, and soon all front-facing eyes are bleeding with cuts or entirely punctured. Tana's flames slowly spread and melt the delicate organs, eye juices dripping to the floor. The boss writhes in pain until Irela and Uloru do their nail combo to shorten the agony of the Arachnoid. I finish off the boss with a fully charged beauty spear.

Ting! Your party has killed an All Seeing Arachnoid (Grand), Level 419; extra experience has been rewarded for being under-leveled.

Ting! Your Bond has obtained level 500!