Chapter 12 - Just the beginning (2/2)

The first task was to rush through the dungeon in under an hour and a half as I was aiming to dive in at least 5 times. With this in mind, I bought a specialized hunter bag that was woven with materials meant to stretch. The bag had straps that tightly hugged your body so that a strong hunter could move without any issues.

This was a poor hunter's item, as the truly rich ones had purchased equipment that allowed them to store whatever they wanted in a large s.p.a.ce. I put this item off for now as it would have taken a majority of my funds, and my goal was obtaining more skills currently

I repeated the same process as yesterday and arrived at the monolith at 7 am. It was a fairly cloudy morning and still early, so there were significantly fewer hunters around. Some had already set up shop with their skill books and cores, others meeting up and forming parties while getting to know one another

Still activating [Camouflage], I entered the dungeon and appeared on the clearing filled with trees once more. This time though, besides the skills I originally had, I had added [Aura of Haste] and [Life Essence]. I ran towards the first group of goblins that I could see and rushed up to them while I was still hidden

They were alerted the moment I came near them, but that didn't stop me from reaching my hand out and placing it on each of them while they were still disorganized. With my increased speed from [Aura of Haste], I could do this much without an issue. I then pulled back a few feet away and watched as black tattooish circles spread to cover ⅓ of their bodies

I observed them as they turned my way, none the wise about the runes that had sprouted on their bodies. I gave the command and the rank C skill [Explosive Rune] was fully utilized

BANG!

The portion of the goblins' body that was covered in the runes exploded with a huge force, throwing chunks of flesh and bones everywhere as 5 goblins were soon lying in their own pool of blood.

The damage was just as expected for a rank C skill, powerful! I speedily cleared the floors like this. With all the defensive and support skills kept active, I pressed down the floors with [Camouflage] hiding me and giving me enough time to come in contact with the monsters that exploded a second after. Some floors I still used [Flames and Torment] and kept on experimenting with it as it's proficiency continued to rise. More than an hour quickly pa.s.sed and I was through all 29 floors and headed to the BOSS once more

The 6-meter tall Goblin King looked as ruthless as always, and noticed me as soon as I came down even though I was hidden. I walked towards it slowly until I stood a meter away, where it stared me down. This one was one of the peculiar traits of this BOSS that interested me. When the fight began it was always so calm as if it was measuring me up. During the fight though, it would go completely berserk

It was still a monster though and threw a fist down at me a second later. I raised my small hand to match this fist as my palm was opened to receive it

PAH!

A sound like that of the loudest slap resounded as [Arcanist's Sphere of Protection] absorbed all the damage and the ground beneath me cracked. The arm of the Goblin King rapidly had a runic tattoo spreading on it, and the boss quickly felt something wrong as it grabbed its skin and tried to rip it off

BOOM!

A deafening explosion rang out as it's entire arm blew apart and it let out a thundering howl. The enraged king reacted fast, throwing another fist with its remaining arm...only for the same thing to repeat

I was standing at the same location, the ground around me full of cracks as if an earthquake occurred. I had sunk a few inches into the ground as I calmly looked up at the Goblin King that was missing both of its arms

RAAAA!

It let out an angry shout as if it would not give up and kicked its right leg downwards.

PAH! BOOM!

The same scene repeated and now its right leg was gone. The large beast could not support its weight as it fell backwards with a loud thunk. Loud breathing could be heard as it's entire face was twisted in pain. I climbed out of the small hole I had been repeatedly kicked in and jumped up on top of the body of the beast, landing on its square abdominal muscles and traveling forward to its face

I looked down at it as it could not move or do much of anything else.

Besides the heavy breathing and a pained look, I could see another expression on the Goblin King's face after more than half of its body was blown away. It was extremely distinct while I looked at its huge eyes. I had seen this expression before. I had felt it before. It was fear. I reached my hand out and let my palm touch it's forehead, leaving it there as I commanded [Explosive Rune] to combust

BOOM!

Another deafening explosion rang out in the clearing before silence ensued. [Arcanist's Sphere of Protection] and [Arctic Armor] didn't allow even a single stone or meat to land on my body, negating the force of the explosion as if it was nothing.