"That's it?" Mathias asked in dumbfounding.
"Yep, that's it."
Nial merely smiled as he stored the corpses of the Blackbone Bears in his spatial ring.
One of the four Blackbone Bears had turned into an Origin crystal.
It was as large as the fist of an infant and radiated a whitish-blue light.
"Lowest quality Superior grade, not bad."
The Lowest quality Superior grade Origin crystals were perfectly suited for both Mathias and Nial. Using Origin crystals of higher quality wouldn't increase their efficiency while Common graded Origin crystals didn't hold enough pure mana.
'Looks like Low Expert Dungeons are perfect for us, right now.' Nial thought with a smile.
The Blackbone Bear corpses were quite useful for them. Not only were their bones used to create weapons, potions and specific inscription solutions but some abilities required making use of the bear's black bones as well.
That's why they would fetch a good price.
Their claws, hide and even intestines were quite useful for various things. Thus, Nial didn't think twice and quickly stored their corpses.
"Let's continue. We shouldn't waste too much time inside the dungeon. There are loads of things we still have to do."
Nial's voice pulled Mathias out of his train of thoughts before he nodded his head with much more enthusiasm than before.
'Prym ranked Beasts with Basic Origin rings are much weaker than the Dryx we fought. I might even be able to fight some on my own. Let's gooo!'
Mathias kept motivating himself as he followed Nial, who had already detected another group of beasts.
Following that two hours passed and Mathias found himself lying on a patch of blueish-green moss.
He was breathing heavily and his eyes were drooping but it was his sheer willpower that did not let him fall asleep at once. Mathias was tired after fighting more than 15 groups of beasts in a matter of two hours.
His mana might not be depleted but his mind was aching and so were his arms.
"I have never carried the large battle axe for so long…I'm dead… Let's go back, how about that?"
Mathias might feel overjoyed due to the fact that they had defeated more than 90 dungeon beasts that had at least one Basic Origin ring each.
For someone at the Origin rank to defeat so many opponents at the Prym rank was an admirable feat.
Yet, with Nial by his side, Mathias had been able to fight multiple Prym-ranked beasts at the same time.
Mathias glanced at his friend while forcing himself to sit and get up from the comfortable and soft moss cushion.
"It's not like I don't agree but how about we finish everything up with one more fight?" Nial asked his friend as his lifeless, milky white eyes stared in the eyes of his friend's.
"One more fight. What makes you think this fight is more interesting than the others?" Mathias could clearly see that the corners of Nial's mouth were curled upward.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtHe was planning something, and that worried Mathias more than any of the previous fights.
"Well, we're in the range of a loner beast, so I believe it will be more interesting!" Nial merely replied before turning away once again.
'Loner beast? A Rare Boss, or the Dungeon Boss?'
Mathias acted quite naive and stupid most of the time. But nobody had dropped him on his head when he was born.
Thus, he could connect the dots, and determine that Nial wanted to fight the beast he was talking about.
'If the thought of fighting that beast excites him, that can only mean Nial can tell that it's a powerful beast…'
Despite understanding the situation and the fact that the next fight would be far more dangerous than their previous fights, Mathias couldn't help but start smiling as well.
He felt that he hadn't been able to go all out until now.
Thus, after he gulped down an energy replenishment potion to dispel his exhaustion, Mathias was ready to fight once again.
"Let's beat that Boss then!"
Nial's slight grin turned into a broad smile the moment he heard Mathias' words.
'Sometimes, I really wonder if he has a dual personality.' Nial thought for a moment but this thought didn't linger in his mind for long.
He approached the direction his mana perception sensed the strong mana fluctuations emerging from with calm steps.
Mathias followed him quietly while holding the Tier-1 Blackwood wand in his hand.
They devised some sort of plan in the short time they needed to pass through the forest.
However, this plan seemed to have lost all its value the moment the two young Originals were able to see or visualize the beast they had been approaching.
"Is that a…Treant? That huge thing is our opponent?" Mathias asked, feeling slightly dumbfounded as he looked up.
A jumbled mess of tangled-up vines, roots, leaves, branches, and a tree trunk had entered their view. This chaotic-looking mess was moving, had two huge pillar-like legs and monstrously large arms hanging down its shoulders.
The beast they had just approached was far from being a normal Treant. It looked human-like and had balls of pitch-black roots replacing its eyes.
Distinct features contributed to the formation of its grotesque face. It looked slightly weird but it was still a face, that was out of the question.
"Yeah, that's our opponent. But it's weird. I didn't read anything about a Treant in the information provided about Rare Bosses, let alone a variant Dungeon Boss…"
Both Nial and Mathias had read through all the provided pieces of information about the Urifaer Silverwood dungeon.
That was mostly due to the fear Mathias had felt in the beginning. As such, they knew quite a bit about the dungeon they had entered.
But even then, there had been no mention of a Treant.
"Maybe it's simply a Silverwood tree that gained sentience? I mean, it's not impossible for plants to gain sentience.
You know, there are also the Deadwill flower, the Miarit tree, and so on, who have been reported to have gained sentience once or twice…"
Nial tried to think of a logical solution to what they saw but Mathias merely shook his head.
"Can't you see that its tree trunk is brown and that the Treant has green and blue leaves? There is no such Silverwood tree in this dungeon!" Mathias started to lecture, not noticing that Nial clenched his fist at that.
He felt like punching Mathias right here and right now, even at the expense of divulging their existence to the Treant.
'It is great that you feel like lecturing me, but I cannot see the color of the Treant's trunk, let alone the blue leaves, idiot…'
Taking a deep breath, Nial forced himself to calm down.
"Either way, let's just defeat it. We should be at an advantage against the Treant. Its movements are slow and I have the perfect weapon to defeat and cut through all kinds of plants!"
Wielding the Dragonflame spear in his hand, Nial used his mana to heat up the blade and to shroud it in a blazing red flame.
This time Nial didn't think that it was necessary to use his dark energy to alter the Dragonflame spear's flame.
Searing heat and a blazing flame was everything he required.
Dashing ahead without waiting for Mathias' reply, Nial crossed ten meters in an instant.
'He is always doing whatever he wants. Couldn't he just wait for me to say something as well!?'
Mathias felt like punching Nial as well. However, instead of saying anything out loud, the young man circulated mana in the Tier-1 Blackwood wand while activating both his Innate ability [Elemental comprehension] and his ability [Earth affinity].
More than a dozen Earthen spears manifested around Mathias as he conjured them with ease.
He blasted them toward the head of the Treant before changing his tactic instantaneously.
Turning his head to the ground around the Treant, he controlled the soil and reduced it into fine particles that formed a fine layer of mud before pillars of Earth shot out of the soil all around.
Blasting toward the Treant's lower body with a shocking speed and might, Mathias' Earthen pillars were powerful enough to bring the Treant down.
They impacted on the back of the Treant's legs, and the Earthen pillars caused the beast's body to shake twice.
It slithered over the mud and nearly fell to the ground.
However, owing to the beast's heavy weight which exceeded ten tons easily, the Treant sank deep into the mud instead.
This had not been Mathias' plan but he changed his tactic once again, turning the mud back to solid soil. He used his Earth affinity to add a few layers of soil to prevent the Treant from escaping his grasp.
Unfortunately, that was only partially possible as roots pierced out of its legs, and destroyed the soil around it.
Within seconds, it was freed and could move once again.
But these seconds had been more than enough for Nial to emerge behind the treant.
The blazing flames that engulfed the Dragonflame spear erupted once again as Dilan made his first slash.
Loud sizzling noises reached Nial's ear as he kept slashing through the roots, vines and everything else the Treant's leg was made of.
The searing hot blade cut through the Treant as if it was not a powerful, sentient monster but an ordinary tree without a single trace of mana.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmBurning through everything, Nial's spear turned into a weapon of death and the incarnation of hellfire that burned through all the plants.
The Treant was no exception, which was clear the moment the Dragonflame Spear cut through the leg of the seven-meter-tall Treant.
Without facing a single issue, Nial had cut off one of the Treant's legs.
It fell to the ground after losing balance but it did little to deter the mighty beast.
Releasing hundreds of roots, vines, and branches from its body, they shot through the air and into the ground targeting only one being; Nial.
The Treant could regrow its leg but once it lost its life, everything it had attained until now would reduce to ashes.
That was why it couldn't lose, not now!
However, what the Treant was not able to change…was its fate.
Just when its hundreds of attacks were about to reach Nial, darkness shrouded him.
His body released a black miasma explosively, weakening and damaging every living existence it shrouded.
Following that, numerous tiny black ropes were shot out of Nial, forcefully halting the advance of the Treant's attacks.
At the same time, Mathias continued to support Nial while simultaneously fortifying the ground between the Treant and Nial, preventing the attacks from the ground to advance as well.
*Crack*
This gave Nial the necessary momentum to blast toward the Treant, to push his feet from the ground, leap in the air, and pierce into the chest of the Treant, who was still lying on the ground.
The moment Nial pierced the Treant's large, greenish mana core, its entire body stopped moving at once.
Its leaves wilted at a rapid pace that was clearly visible to Mathias' eyes. Its roots were sprawled all over the ground, unmoving, and its vines began to wilt as well.
'Why am I sad all of a sudden?' Mathias wondered as he kept looking at the Treant, whose life they had just taken.
However, just a moment later the roots, vines, branches, and the Mana core of the Treant dispersed into countless greenish particles.
They were pulled right in front of Nial, where a swirl of green particles formed.
"What the hell?!" Mathias blurted out, frowning deeply as he tried to understand what was going on."
**
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