Volume 6 - Ch 1.07
I send Roxanne out to search for monsters, and we proceeded forward with her guidance. Not log after we began the exploration, two monsters appeared.
Rub Shrub Lv.13
These monsters looked a lot like trees, if I am to be honest, but they were smaller in size than the Needlewoods, the enemies from the lower floors that can be best described as walking trees, however the roots and branches of Rub Shrubs are shaped differently than the ones belonging to the Needlewoods. Yup, no matter how you looked at it, these guys look a lot like genuine trees. Moreover, their movement speed appears to be quite slow.
Well, that works nicely to my advantage, But do I really have to use my Fire Magic against them? It seems like such a waste to me right now if I could just run up to them and slash them in half with Durandal, but oh well. There are two of them right now, which is a manageable number, but honestly, whenever we are facing a new enemy I would have preferred if it was just a single one, but I know that it would be difficult even for Roxanne to determine the exact number of enemies by the smell alone, so I am not going to hold that against her.
Here it comes whoa!
Just as I was about to unleash my magic, Roxanne dodged right in front of me, and something was sticking out of the ground where Roxanne was just standing.
Roxanne, halt your horses! It is good to be dodging and all, but there may be someone standing behind you, or to the side of you, so it is not good for a member of the vanguard to be suddenly disappearing from their position in a place as dimly lit as the Labyrinth and then I saw a brown object flying right past me at blinding speed.
Oh shit!
I could not move for even one millimeter. There are times when it is really dangerous to have Roxanne around. But enough about that! I almost freaking died here! Is this the ranged attack of Rub Shrub that Sherry was talking about?! So it has long-range attacks in order to compensate for its lack of movement speed, huh? And moreover, it attacked with it right as I was about to release some really cool magic attack! Damn it! Is this divine retribution?
To think I would die to an attack of an ordinary Rub Shrub. But okay, that is fine, I am totally fine with that. However, before you kill me, I will at least show you one of the best magic Spells that I have up my arsenal! I will show you my best magic. My ultimate magic. My true power. One of my most OP Spells that is more terrifying than even death itself, so be grateful for this extra special, once in a lifetime service!
You should feel honored, for you are the first to witness this magic ever being used! Heed my call, descend from far end of the universe, and crush all into nothingness Meteor Crash!
I used the Bonus Spell that I have selected specifically for this occasion.
Meteor Crash. This is the same Spell that I was not able to use earlier, back at the very beginning of my stay in this world when I had no idea how magic and spells actually work here. Now that I have raised my level, I should be able to use it. No, I must be able to use it. For I have succeeded in casting it. I can feel my MP decreasing considerably, so this time it was definitely a success! My MP is almost all used up, but the spell finally managed to materialize itself. I have finally succeeded!
Over my head, a number of burning rocks has appeared. They are the meteorites that burn bright and red like the hottest lava.
The entire cave is getting dyed bright red because of it and then finally, the red-hot meteors struck the ground while filling the entire cave with inhuman amounts of shockwaves, heat waves and tremors that could be felt all the way in my bones, and they were not going to stop just yet. One meteor, two meteors, three meteors. The sounds of their roaring impact as they exploded upon the contact with the ground must have been heard far and wide on this floor as the effects of my spell continued to cut through the air itself.
Eh?
W-What is that?!
One of the huge rocks goes past dumbstruck Roxanne and Sherry, but it did not hit them, so they are fine.
Because I did not choose a specific target for it, Meteor Crashsimply struck the entire area at random. But even though it did that, neither I, Roxanne or Sherry were hurt by it. For some reason, that Spell does not seem to harm the people that were not specified by the caster, and that is why we are safe, even though the rest of the cave is definitely anything but that.
Probably out of reflex, Roxanne was dodging every rock that was flying past her. I am honestly amazed that she can still do that. Sherry, however, could not do it, so one of the rocks grazed her head, but surprisingly it did not inflict any damage on her.
The huge rocks continue to advance, leaving marks on the ground and sparks in the air that illuminate the cave, until it finally crashes into the two Rub Shrubs.
It crashes into the Rub Shrubs. The meteorite completely smashes the two Rub Shrubs with the entirety of its weight being brought down upon them in a single moment.
Silence then returns to the cave. There are neither the meteorites nor the monsters left in it. What remained was only the two planks that the monsters left behind. A One Hit Kill? As I thought, Bonus Spells are truly powerful.
What was that just now?
A new magic attack.
Master has such powerful magic?! As expected of master.Amazing!
B-But to kill those monsters in one hit?!
Certainly, it would have to be a very powerful Spell if even the eleventh level monsters could be killed in one hit of it. In reality, ordinary magic could not ever hope to achieve that. But Rub Shrubs are weak against Fire Magic, and the meteorites were burning red, so it might in fact be classified as Fire Magic. Still, it was unexpectedly powerful. I might have overdone it a little bit here.
A-Amazing!
At the same time, it took considerable amount of my MP. Too much of it, I would even say.
After recovering some MP on first floor of Tares Labyrinth, we moved to eleventh floor of Harubas Labyrinth to recover rest of my MP. Moving between two floors of same Labyrinth is significantly less taxing than moving between two separate Labyrinths. However, only one Lv.1 monster appears on 1st floor, so recovery takes too long. After recovering MP on the eleventh floor of Harubas labyrinth, we returned to the thirteenth floor of Tares Labyrinth.
Now I want to try fighting with Durandal this time. If I feel I cannot take the enemies out, I will just have them eat Meteor Crashagain. I also recovered all of my MP again, so I am good to go.
Once more, Roxanne. Search for small groups of enemies please.
Under Roxannes guidance, we find a lone Rub Shrub. Exactly what I wanted. I raise Durandal and charge at it. If I do not do it quickly, it will shoot its branches at us again. But before I could close the distance, it shot its branches at us anyway, or at least prepared to unleash its Skill that would allow it to do so. I could see orange-colored magic circle light up under its feet, but at this moment it was too late for me to dodge it. The branch hits me in the chest where I have my Leather Armor on, but the impact was still considerable. In fact, it hurts like hell! Such power, even though I was covered with Plating!
Because it came to a stop, I charged in to close the distance, and I have no time to apply Plating again because that might give it the opening it would need to launch another branch at me! I raise my sword up high, activate Rush and bring it down on the Rub Shrub.