Free Web NovelChapter 16: Ch 16: Uncommon Grade
[A/N: 1 Chapter per day for the next three days. Also thank you, kind readers, for the power stones. It motivates me to write more and more.]
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Skills consume mana and Enzo soon found out a huge number of slimes lurking in the darkness that had somehow evaded his Mana Vision.
He gritted his teeth as he felt his mana being used by rapidly, both from using the skill and the slimes sucking it.
Initially, Enzo easily managed the wave of Devouring Slimes. He ripped their cores before they could even touch him. He was even able to resist the jarring effect every time he switched between his normal and mana vision.
But then, as the slimes from every direction grouped up, it got extremely difficult for him to focus on all of them at the same time. Seizing this advantage, a few of them had slipped past his blind spot and sucked away as much mana as they could, before dying at his hands.
’Damn it all.’ He cursed inwardly, wondering if he had indeed taken a rash decision by venturing inside the dungeon without any proper preparations.
’I should have atleast equipped myself with a weapon.’
Just as that thought surfaced, an idea formed inside him. Feeling a bit dizzy, he turned his neck towards the water body. fгeewebnovёl.com
"Why didn’t I think of this..." He muttered under his breath and launched himself in that direction, ignoring the three devouring slimes still clinging to his legs, hands and neck respectively.
The rest of the slimes gave him chase although their speed was considerably slower than his. Upon reaching the edge of the peaceful river, Enzo jumped without a second thought.
The coldness of the flowing water struck him with like a heavy rod, sharping his consciousness and waking him up from his dizzy state. He quickly killed the three slimes stuck to him and rose upwards from under the water.
Gasping for breath, he looked towards the bank where all the slimes were hovering just out of reach of the river. They screeched like they had before but mixed with the killing intent, there was now a hesitation as well.
It was clear that none of them wanted to step on the water body. Enzo grinned seeing the reaction. This was exactly what he had been expecting - the slimes could have been made from water but that didn’t mean they could swim.
The demonic miasma present inside them was enough to increase their density than the normal density of water. And given they couldn’t swim, they would simply have been submerged inside.
Knowing the threat had been neutralized for now, Enzo turned around and faced the other side of the river. The waters of the river was chilling to the bone and he had no wish of catching an unwanted cold from it.
So he quickly stroked on the water surface as he swimmed towards the safe land, where he couldn’t see any slimes through his Mana Vision.
It was as if they were all isolated on only one side of the river.
As Enzo arrived close to the banks of the other side, he noticed a set of spiralling stairs rising from the ground and reaching somewhere upwards he couldn’t see.
’The next floor...’
A sparkle of hope ignited in him as he swam even faster. He wasn’t planning on crashing into the second floor right after escaping the first. Rather he would first take a rest once he reached the stairs, which acted as the intermediate between the two floors and also the only area where monsters wouldn’t dare step onto. It was simply not allowed.
There was rather another reason why he had chosen to enter the Gate in the first place. This F-ranked dungeon was an incomplete dungeon, meaning you didn’t need to clear every monster in it to be eligible for the next floor. If you wanted to, you could simply ignore all the monsters and still reach the next floor.
"Afterall, it’s already a rare case that an incomplete Gate has surfaced on the planet. Probably the death of the Great Old One was the reason why it even appeared. Otherwise, dungeons only appeared during the Blood Moon. A proper dungeon, not an Incomplete one with broken rules and less monsters."
Suddenly, a disturbance occurred in the smooth rolling waters, attracting his attention. Ripples spread across the water and fearing the worst, Enzo turned back to look at the slimes he had left behind.
Contrary to his doubt, they were still on the lands and haven’t taken a single step towards the river.
Enzo found that strange and he dived underwater to see the source of the disturbance. But other than the clear waters, shrubby undergrowths and small fishes, he saw nothing.
Rising up again, he looked around him rapidly. His heart had grown cautious as he felt a bad premonition. As if something really bad was about to happen.
The ripples increased like the water was being heated. Except that there was no heat, of course.
’The hell is even happening?! Is something enormous coming out or what?’
He couldn’t help but doubt his own observation. Maybe he had missed out some creature beneath the waters just like how he had missed the devouring slimes when they hid themselves in the darkness while he used his Mana Vision.
Suddenly, a terrible feeling gripped his heart and slowly...he looked above him. At the rocky ceiling.
Or atleast at the creature that was spread out across it.
For a moment as Enzo’s gaze locked on the creature, the ripples in the water paused. His eyes widened in alarm as he saw just how large the creature was.
He was however able to recognise what it was - a Devouring Slime. Just that this one was a premium version of the rock sized ones he had fought minutes back.
And now as if it had realised that its cover had been blown away, it stopped holding back and screamed. It was unlike anything Enzo had ever heard before. Even the screeches of the slimes from before had only annoyed him a bit.
But this...this was different. The scream was loud to the ears, so much that Enzo feared his eardrums might burst out. But more than the physical pain, the scream affected him psychologically. He truly felt as if someone was trying to tear his soul apart, attack his mind and remove him from existence. The feeling was intensely suffocating.
He desperately tried to get a grip of himself as the serene waters turned into waves that crashed on him and even on the lands of both sides of the river. Raising his eyes at the massive slime, he activated his Mana Vision.
His breath caught as he saw the presence of two mana cores inside the Devouring Slime. Instantly, he knew this was no Common grade monster - it was an Uncommon grade.
"And also the boss of the first floor..."
He really wanted to curse his luck. Generally, incomplete Gates lacked boss level monsters. The probability of facing one was substantially less but never zero. And Enzo definitely could prove that now.
He immediately leapt into action as he swam like a man desperate for his life...which he really was.
He tried to hold his nerves against the soul wrenching screams and moved forward towards the safety of the land. It was strangely familiar to what he had to face a while before during the trial of the Great Old One.
Determination. Courage. Pure Will.
Enzo repeated those words as his grim eyes glanced all over, watching as every bit of water from the rivers suddenly flew upwards, moving towards the Devouring Slime, which sucked it all inside itself.
*Pah*
Enzo fell with a heavy thud on the floor of the river, now devoid of a single drop of water.
