The Legend of the Meta-Defying Smith Who Saved the Kingdom Chapter 113 - 110 - Unexpected Boss Fight

The Smith poked his head over the final step of the staircase, eyes at ground level as he peered down the length of the tunnel. The tunnel appeared to open into a large space, the view blocked by so kind of resplendent multi-colored boulder.

He crept back down the stairs a way, past the point where he needed the [Blind] helt to be able to see, and after a minute of thinking decided to change into his Light Armor. The [Shadow Concealnt] enchantnt of his Dark Armor wasn't working in this bright light anyway.

Once changed, he also swapped his Red Iron Round Shield for his Light Tower Shield and his Light War Hamr for his Dark War Hamr.

Finally, he ate a small amount of his dwindling crab monster at, put the [Blind] helt back on, and advanced up the staircase and down the tunnel, as quietly as he could. Step by step he approached the end of the tunnel and, now closer, he realized it wasn't a boulder, but a large tortoise monster, a little less than twice as tall as himself, with gems of various colors embedded in its shell. Stubby, thick, short legs poked out of the bottom of its shell, as well as a small tail. It showed no signs of noticing his approach, and Jas reckoned that its head must be looking towards the other side of the room.

He stopped just inside the tunnel, still unnoticed, and examined the room. A few yards to the right, along the wall, was a treasure chest, and then another dozen or so yards away there was a corner. The wall was white stone with glow stone outcroppings scattered here and there, and the ceiling was an unbroken blanket of the stones, more than twenty yards overhead.

The view of the far wall was mostly blocked by the tortoise monster, and the wall to the left was the sa as the one opposite. Overall, the room seed to be a cavern about fifty yards wide.

A standard boss room.

But Jas was on the wrong side of it.

Or maybe it was the right side?

He started to get confused, but refocused before he could get distracted. He had a choice: he could fight this boss monster and continue looking for staircases leading up, or he could go back down to the iron door leading to the boss monster of the sixth floor.

The floor full of unusually large rats and spider monsters.

He stifled a shudder and frowned. No, better the devil he knew. Jas recalled the tortoise monsters from the third floor of the dungeon, the ones that had guarded the ridge between the sand and firestorm areas. The ones that had been on the easier side to fight.

Plus, after fighting the Holy Tiger, how hard could a big, slow tortoise be?

Jas tightened his grip on his Dark War Hamr and crept forward. He stepped foot into the boss monster's arena, a re ten yards from the giant tortoise monster, and its legs twitched, startled.

He strode forward in a hurry, shield raised, as the tortoise started to turn, bringing its head to face him. The gems caught the light, glittering beautifully. But the Smith raised his hamr, and as soon as he was close enough to strike–

[Hamr Strike]

[Blind]

He poured magic power into his War Hamr's enchantnt the sa as he would with any of his hamrs enchanted with [Heavy Blow].

Crunch

His hamr crushed one of the gems, but otherwise didn't physically damage the tortoise monster's shell. Fragnts of the erald fell to the hard packed dirt beneath them, but Jas' attention was stolen by the spreading patch of darkness that stained the monster's shell.

Hissss!

With a loud hiss that seed to echo in Jas' helt, the tortoise monster managed to turn enough to see him around its own bulk, the one eye glaring at him in hatred.

He raised his hamr to strike again, unsure how much damage he was doing but confident that he was at least doing so damage, given the boss monster's reaction, and he managed to get one more strike in as the monster turned. He didn't break a gem this ti, but the dark stain spread, dulling the gems it touched.

He raised his left arm again, preparing another strike, when he saw the boss monster's head rear back. Quickly, he hunkered down behind his Light Tower Shield and the tortoise monster's head whipped around almost faster than he could track, snapping its jaws shut against his shield. The head was wider than his torso, even in his armor, and it took almost all his strength to hold his ground against the force.

But he did hold his ground.

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And he didn't miss his chance to counter in the mont the tortoise monster recoiled from having its own attack blocked.

As fast as he could, he raised his War Hamr and swung it back down, not with any great force, simply relying on technique and Dexterity to ensure he hit his target.

[Hamr Strike]

[Blind]

He hit the monster in the head and darkness spread all over, even partway down its unnaturally long neck, and another hiss emanated from what was now a round patch of darkness and shadow. The head thrashed around, so wildly that Jas couldn't line up another strike, but it didn't even seem to be aiming for him.

Or it couldn't aim at him.

Still, the thrashing head was preventing him from getting closer to hit the shell, so he started side stepping around the tortoise monster's bulk and as he did, the monster withdrew its head and legs into its shell.

With no other warning, mid-step, every un-darkened gem on the tortoise monster's shell suddenly shined so bright that it dazzled Jas even through his helt, and beams of light shot in all directions. Several of the beams struck him and were instantly [Reflected], chunking down his mana, but otherwise not affecting Jas in the slightest.

The walls of the cavern weren't so lucky.

A beam of red light swept across the wall, leaving a line of fire that quickly extinguished itself, but left a line of molten stone glowing and dripping. Another beam, this one pale blue, cooled the air and left a line of hoarfrost along the ground, up another wall, and even froze so of the glowstones on the ceiling. A beam of white light was reflected and refracted and reflected and refracted, filling the room with a rainbow of color that, other than montarily dazzling Jas, didn't seem to do anything else. Green and brown beams of light also played about the room, and in the span of a breath over a dozen of the beams struck Jas and were [Reflected] even as he continued to move into position for a new strike.

His Light Armor was proof against it all.

The Smith struck again with his Dark War Hamr, and the light show paused as a new patch of darkness spread on the monster's shell, darkening several more gems and eliciting a new angry hiss, but then the beams of light started again.

The tortoise monster remained withdrawn in its shell.

Over and over Jas struck, and over the next minute, the darkness spread over the shell, small patches growing larger, rging, and darkening, until even in the bright light of the cavern the tortoise now looked more like a boulder of dark, nearly black stone than a monster.

The beams of light, which had been lessening in number as Jas darkened the shell, stopped, but the monster stayed withdrawn, and for all that his hamr was changing the monster's color, it wasn't physically damaging the shell other than occasionally crushing a gem here and there.

Jas swapped hamrs with a thought, and his left had tightened around the handle of his trusty Earth War Hamr.

[Hamr Strike]

[Heavy Blow]

BOOM!

The deep sound of his strike echoed throughout the cavern.

Hissss!

The tortoise monster hissed in pain from within its shell, but didn't co out.

BOOM

BOOM

BOOM

BOOM

Crack!

The shell finally cracked, and the tortoise monster poked its head out, closer than Jas had expected, but still blinded, and it snapped at empty air unable to see where he was.

Carefully, he lined up his swing, and at just the right mont–

[Hamr Strike]

Crunch!

The spike on the end of his hamr pierced the tortoise monster's leathery skin, then its skull, and then into its brain tissue as the mass of the hamr forced the head into the ground.

And then the Smith continued to swing his hamr.

BOOM

BOOM

BOOM

The head was an unrecognizable ss of gore and bone fragnts in a small crater when the intrusive thoughts ca and Jas finally stopped.

[Enchanter] Class has reached level 12.

[Smith] Class has reached level 12.

Jas allowed himself a small grin behind his helt's visor. Victory.

A pang of hunger shot through his stomach as the adrenaline started to wear off and he breathed heavily. Imdiately, he refocused on a very important question:

How did tortoise monster at taste?

An hour later, Jas had his answer: not great. But better than mole monster at, and although the tortoise monster was so big, most of that bulk seed to be shell. The total amount of at he was able to collect was slightly less than the three serpent monster's he'd killed on the fifth floor of the Dungeon.

He paused in the middle of adjusting his smoker. Was this the fifth floor, again? Or was it the seventh floor?

The shell he had smashed to pieces with his hamr in his spirited disassembly of the monster's corpse, and over ti the lux essence in the air had overco the darkness from his hamr strikes, and the shell fragnts had regained their luster.

[Appraisal]: Glimring Tortoise Shell Fragnt

Jas idly considered that he might be able to work them into a shield, but he wasn't sure how, and anyway, his Light Tower Shield was still in great condition. So into the magic bag they went.

The organs and bones went in a pile, and the monster had a large Light Jewel full of lux essence embedded in its heart, which also went into the magic bag.

Jas was far more interested in the at, and it wasn't until after the last batch had been smoked and he was putting away the smoker that he rembered the treasure chest near the tunnel leading to the stairs back down to the sixth floor.

He conducted his usual check for traps and opened it, and found it full to the brim with perfectly ford ingots of White Iron, completely free of essence. He gazed upon the treasure for a mont, and then quickly stored it all away in his magic bag. He couldn't find it in himself to be super excited, since he could easily mine out all the White Iron Ore he wanted and slt it down, and he had a large stockpile already, but still, this was what treasure should be!

The Smith smiled, stood, stretched, and rolled his shoulders. Feeling confident, he strode across the arena, crossing the hundred yards to reach the ten steps leading up to the familiar iron door. He climbed up, grabbed the handle, and pulled fruitlessly, the iron door stubbornly refusing to budge.

Jas frowned, tugged again, and his heart started racing until he rembered. He pushed, and the door swung open without any resistance, revealing a small room of white stone, glow crystals, and hard packed dirt.