After leaving the forest floor we encountered some fierce and quite unique monsters, but overall it was a breeze.
The 'Iron spiders' were an interesting bunch, their eyes were extremely adept at seeing in the dark and their silk was made of something similar to iron or steel. It was extremely tough and durable, had a metallic shine and feel, but despite all that, it was extremely pliable.
It hunted by using its 'Iron silk' as a whip and cutting its victims into pieces. It's a good thing that I had the 'mana sense' skill which allowed me to sense one of them approaching and 'stone skin' which allowed me to take the brunt of the attack while Alex flanked it from the side and bit into its leg with the 'venomous bite' skill.
The spider was done in less than a minute witch is still a long time, but I am pretty sure that 'Iron spiders' are an 'A' rank monsters and they have some sort of 'venom resistance', so all and all it just goes to show how powerful 'Venomous bite' truly is.
After the 'lunch' we both received a substantial increase in vision, skill 'Night vision' and I even gained the ability to form and dispense 'Iron silk' from the tips of my fingers. It's a good thing that it was the fingers and not the a… After testing out our new skills and getting used to them, we moved forward.
On the list of impressive monsters 'Immortal salamanders' were up next. The size of a lion with incredible regenerative powers. They were weak, but no matter how much we tried, there was no way for us to actually kill one of those things. Even cutting off their heads didn't seem to do the trick. After thoroughly exhausting ourselves we decided to just cut a piece of them off and eat. After all, there really wasn't any real reason for us to kill them, while their regeneration was annoying, their combat abilities were subpar at best, they weren't a real threat to us, so we just let them be.
When Alex marveled at the insane ability we had just received, calling us immortal, I suggested cutting off his head to try his theory out. He wasn't amused.
It seems that after the 50th floor, every ten floors the dungeon gives us a new terrain to test our skills, because exactly ten floors below the forest floor we encountered a floor filled with magma and fire. There were flames everywhere, rivers of magma had flown destroying everything in their paths until merging into giant lava lakes.
It was hot, as hot as in a frying pan in hell and the monsters there specialized in fire attribute attacks. 'Fire foxes' - red-brown, foxlike monsters that could shoot fire from their mouths, 'Ember tigers' - massive cats that would ignite their own bodies with flame attribute skills were the ones at the top of the food chain here and with good reason, they are both high 'A' class monsters. But that was about to change.
At first the heat on this floor was simply unbearable, that was the first issue on hand, so we looked for something that had some sort of heat resistant skills to feast upon. We decided to go for 'Lava swimmers' - fish-like monsters that inhabited the lava lakes, reasoning that their 'fire resistance' skill would be the strongest.
Finding them was easy, but how do we catch them? At that time we couldn't simply go for a swim, so catching them bare handedly was out of our reach. Fishing with fishing poles was no go either since for one we did not have them and for two they would burn up instantly. even the 'Iron silk' melted in a flash. I tried my 'petrifying gaze' just in case and it actually worked. The problem was that after getting petrified the 'Lava swimmers' would simply melt, so that was just a waste of mana. The 'Air slash' yielded similar results.
It was hard to think, the heat was turning our brains into mush, we became inpatient, agitated at one another. This challenge was taking its toll on us, so we decided to retreat to the upper floors to think up a plan.
It took us days to think something up, we almost gave up and decided to look for easier pray, but the 'Lava swimmers' were the weakest monsters on that floor and we knew that there was no way for us to defeat 'Fire foxes' that traveled and hunted in groups or the 'Ember tigers' that radiated enough heat to almost completely dispel 'air slashes'. We even thought of giving up our quest for power and glory and going to the surface, but finally one day the sick in the head alchemist jumped up while we were resting, startling me to death, donned his signature smile and loudly proclaimed "I've got it"
"What did you get? A few more loose screws?" I asked sarcastically.
"No, not yet at least. I have figured out how to catch ourselves some fish, and the best part is that you won't have to act as bait this time." Good, I already approve, but just in case…
"So, your plan, mind sharing?" Not gonna lie hearing that I won't be the bait for once got me intrigued.
"Of course, my uneducated friend, I will grace you with the knowledge and wisdom from my supreme brain. Be honored." Right… "We will go spear fishing" Was said to me with utmost confidence. Spear fishing in lava? Yup, sounds legit. Let's play along.
"Oh supreme one, please enlighten this earthly fool of how we will do that." I asked, thinking that his idea was simply a joke or that he was finally going mad.
"Yes, of course, do you remember the amount of effort it took us to kill our first beetle monster?" The traumatic memories of the smell and the screams immediately filled my brain.
"Yes, thanks for reminding me, what of it?"
"Do you know why it took us so long to finally kill it?"
"Because the shell was resistant to fire? I asked, still perplexed.
"Exactly, but why do you think that was? We didn't get any 'flame resistance' skills when we ate it right?"
"Because its shell wasn't flammable, I wager to guess." I said, finally starting to understand the plan.
"That is the hypothesis I came to myself as well, which is strange since insect exoskeletons are made of keratin - a carbon based structure meaning that it is flammable, but the shell of the beetle monster didn't burn up no matter how long we burned it. That means that it wasn't keratin, but something else, or at the very least, something in the keratin structure giving it incredible toughness, durability and resistance to fire. Think about how much we hacked and slashed that thing and we didn't even leave a scratch. I theorize that it is…"
"Blah, blah, blah, get to the point. I don't even know what this magical thing you call keratin is." If I hadn't stopped him now, he would have talked for an eternity. I know this total science geek fairly enough to know that.
Alex looked at me, then gave me an evil smile and started "Keratin is one of a family of structural fibrous proteins also known as scleroproteins. It is the key structural material making up scales, hair, nails, feathers, horns, claws, hooves, and the outer layer of skin in vertebrates…" I am in for it now. Shit.
It took Alex a solid hour to explain everything to me in excruciating detail and I could see just how much he was enjoying torturing me from that damned smile. After the lecture, he told me that we would be making fishing spears out of the shells of the beetle monsters and I was so glad that it was finally over. I would rather play bate against any kind of monster than be forced to endure that again.
The making of the fishing spears was fairly straight forward, since we had become far stronger, we managed to pierce the shells with my dagger. Alex theorized that no matter how strong and durable the new spears are, they won't last long in lava, so I was forced to make a whole pile of them while Alex 'was on the lookout'. We also decided to make some shields out of the same beetle monster's shell and, while we were at it, we took the praying mantises' claws and fashioned ourselves swords since our weapons were quite chipped at this time.
With this upgraded equipment we were ready. Ready to take over the 70th floor.
By the fair law of 'taking dibs' I claimed that this time I would be on the 'lookout' while Alex had to go near the scorching hot lava pool to show us his incredible spear skills. It took a long while and almost all of our spears to catch a single 'Lava swimmer'. It wasn't easy, Alex had to stand right next to the lava pool and wait for one of those monsters to swim to the surface. Not only that, but the 'Lava swimmer' had to be close enough to Alex for him to actually reach it.
Alex was drenched in sweat and could barely stand on his feet by the time he caught one and for the first time I felt bad about torturing him, but then I remembered the lecture about keratin and my guilt immediately vanished.
The 'lava swimmer' was incredibly hot to the touch for at least an hour after death, so we had to wait before eating it. As suspected, we obtained the 'Fire resistance' skill, while we still couldn't swim in lava (I figured that out the hard way) the overall heat on this floor became a non issue to us, so that meant that it was time to hunt bigger game.
We started with the 'Fire foxes'. As always, I was the bait herding all of them to me while armed with a huge beetle-shield and mantis-sword. The foxes started blasting me with a flurry of 'fireball' spells, I brunted the damage with the oversized shield. When they came close to me, all of them started to trip, getting their legs severed, seriously injured or even getting cut to pieces whole. That's because the area around me was covered in almost invisible 'Iron silk' treads.
When all of the monsters were down, all that we had to do was strike the finishing blow. Some escaped, but most weren't so lucky. It was a slaughter, we killed all that we could showing no mercy.
Alex is technically a 'warrior' meaning that, unlike a 'caster', he struggles with casting spells and excels in strengthening and imbuing his body with mana, so he was understandably very giddy when he gained the 'fireball' skill - a fairly powerful and high level skill to boot. When he obtained it, he demanded to try it out immediately, so I had no choice but to comply and return to the previous floor.
I wasn't as lucky as Alex, meaning that all I got from eating a bunch of 'Fire foxes' was a slight improvement in my overall physical abilities and a minor improvement in my 'fire resistance'.
After Alex played with his new skill for a while we decided to finally take on the 'Ember tiger'. At first, the alchemist tried out his new 'fireball' skill. That did nothing apart from getting the beast's attention. The 'Ember tiger' turned to us, ignited its body and pounced. It's remarkable just how powerful it is, with one jump it covered the distance of over 20 meters, but we expected that and had taken some precautions against that particular attack in the form of a wall of 'iron silk'. It was trapped.
Just as we were beginning to think that we won, the tiger actually melted the silk and lunged at me. I was unprepared for that, we were unprepared for that. In that split second I had to make a decision whether to block with the oversized shield or to doge and I decided to doge, reasoning that there was no way for me to weather that kind of power. But I wasn't fast enough, so I lost the sword arm to the monster. It was painful. Very painful, but compared to my transformation, it was nothing. Besides, my 'rapid regeneration' skill kicked in almost immediately and my arm began to grow back.
That wasn't something that the 'Ember tiger' was going to allow. Not giving me a chance to recover, it lunged at me again, this time aiming for my head. I lunged forward with the shield firmly in front of me, trying to match its power and at least hold it in place while Alex did the rest.
I did everything - enhanced my body with mana, used 'stone skin' just to keep it in place, but it overwhelmed me, forcing me to the ground. Just as the tiger was about to bite my head off, Alex threw a flask into its mouth, the tiger instinctively bit it and immediately recoiled. It tried to attack again, but its movements became sluggish and I was able to roll to the side and finally get up. The 'Ember tiger' kept attacking, getting slower and more disoriented with every attack until it finally dropped to the ground.
"Hey Alex, what did you do to it?" I asked.
"Remember we spent a lot of time on the forest floor right? Well I found some poisonous plants there, and I am not just talking about poison beauty. In fact, poison beauty would be considered child's play compared to the stuff I found. So yea, that was a cocktail of the most poisonous plants on that floor." Was said to me with the most terrifyingly innocent smile. This guy might really just kill me in my sleep.
"Do you have more?"
"Plenty"
"Good." I don't know whether I should be happy or terrified.
After eating the 'Ember tiger' I once again drew the short stick by not gaining anything remarkable, while Alex gained the 'ember touch' skill allowing him to cover himself or his weapon in incredibly hot fire. I guess it's only natural since he actually has an affinity for fire. It's strange though how I was able to obtain skills like 'petrifying gaze' or 'wind barrier' without the 'earth' or 'wind' affinity.
After pouting for a while and fully healing my arm, which took around an hour, we decided to finally clear this floor and head down. This time Alex, having the 'ember touch' skill, could front line against the 'Ember tigers' or even take them on alone. In the meantime, I took my efforts to fight the 'Fire foxes', not to kill them, but to level up my 'rapid regeneration' skill. The training was excruciatingly painful, but necessary for what was up ahead.
After clearing this floor, we decided to not wait and to continue our delving into the depths of hell.