The Smith shook his head, rattling his helt's visor. Self-reflection was one thing, self-loathing was another. All he could do was the best he could do. And in this fight, he felt he had done about as good as he could have.
His shield had been proof against the long range surprise attack.
His armor had been proof against both the serpent's lightning and its constriction.
His hamr had been effective at attacking, and he had followed his mother's teachings and gone on the offensive and won. Not just once, not just twice, but thrice, against boss monsters in a Dungeon.
Not to ntion all his other successes so far. The bat monster swarm, the spi-, er, the bird monster swarm, the snowy passage, and so on.
So past experiences are simply too painful to reflect on.
As for this fight, was there anything he could have done better, other than expect the boss monster to be hiding?
Jas, at that mont, honestly couldn't think of anything.
Was there anything that could have been a huge problem if it had happened?
Yes, at least two things.
First, if his right arm had been pinned to his side, like his left had with the shield, he couldn't have hit the serpent with his hamr.
He would need to be extra careful to keep his hamr arm free while fighting.
Second, if it hadn't been for his armor, he probably would have taken a lot more damage from the lightning. Jas had seen thunderstorms before, and he knew about lightning in theory. But obviously he had never been struck by lightning. Let alone magical lightning.
He couldn't be sure, down here in the Dungeon, but he had a strong suspicion that lightning was related to Air, given that his armor had resisted it so completely. Probably similar to how Ice and Water were related magically.
Going forward, he would need to carefully consider his armor and resistance enchantnts. It would be best if he could do all of them at once, but…
Jas had no idea how to create tal alloys.
And Jas had no idea how to enjoin enchantnts.
He didn't even know if it was possible to put more than one enchantnt on a single item.
At so point in his reflections, standing silently over the carcass of his vanquished foe, he grew hungry and sat down on the serpent's body, conveniently almost as high as a chair, and ate so crab at and bread.
He was really running low on bread.
Once lunch was over, he examined the serpent's body.
[Appraisal]: Lightning Serpent Scales, Sylph Essence
So he removed what scales he could, put them in his magic bag, and considered the at. There was actually a fair bit of at, given how large the serpent was. He collected the at, pulled out his smoker and so tree monster wood, and set the at to smoking. It would take so ti, given the quantity, so no point in waiting to get started.
For so reason, the boss monster rooms didn't seem to reset.
It is ever the nature of man not to question oddities when they are convenient.
Finally, setting aside the organs and whatever Jas couldn't identify and the bones, he found a glowing pale yellow jewel embedded in the monster's heart.
[Appraisal] failed. Still, common sense prevailed, and Jas compared it to the Earth Jewel and Water Jewel he had obtained from the previous two boss monsters.
If he had to guess, it was Lightning rather than Air. But he still had no idea what to do with the Jewels.
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So into the magic bag they went.
Jas left his smoker to its work, and walked over to the treasure chest. He felt himself getting a little excited. Would there be treasure this ti? Or would it be empty?
Of course, he still looked around carefully for traps, at least attempting to be careful even though he had no idea what Dungeon traps even looked like.
The ever trustworthy shovel-poke didn't produce a response, so Jas opened the treasure chest to reveal a seed.
Granted, it was a large seed, larger than his fist even, but still a seed. When he picked it up, he felt sothing like a tremor go through his armor, not physically, but through the enchantnts? Unlike the Water Amulet, it didn't seem to empower the enchantnts.
Once again [Appraisal] failed. The Smith had a feeling that he wouldn't be able to use this in his crafting, but maybe his father, Farr that he was, would be interested? Jas decided to keep it as a gift, for soday in the future.
Into the magic bag it went.
Finally Jas turned to the tunnel and the staircase down.
Ti to investigate.
Step by careful step he descended, taking his ti to let his eyes adjust to the dim light. His shield was raised and Earth War Hamr gripped tightly, ready for anything.
It took him so ti to notice.
It was only when he stopped to raise his visor and wipe the sweat from his brow that he realized.
It was getting hot.
The Smith, of course, had the [Heat Resistance] skill. But that ant that if he was feeling hot even with that, it was pretty darn hot. He happened to still be wearing the cooling system he had designed, so he activated it and proceeded onward, mindful of how much mana he was using.
He could see a dim red light at the bottom of the staircase, and soon enough, he had reached the last step. There was a short tunnel, and he proceeded down it carefully, shield raised.
Jas' first impression was that it was another cavern, like the first floor. Only there was pools of glowing, molten rock dotting the cavern floor. In the distance, he could even see the lava flowing down the wall into a pool in a corner of the cavern.
There were no glowshrooms in this cavern, but there were plenty of the blazing fire variety. The fireshrooms tended to be less common the closer they got to the lava. In addition to all this, there were pools of near boiling water producing constant gouts of steam, reducing visibility and scattering the dim red light. So places on the wall also produced small amounts of steam, and one happened to be right next to the tunnel exit.
[Water Identification]: Pure Water, Steam
Smith Class Skill [Water Identification] has reached level 2.
Enchanter Class Skill [Water Identification] has reached level 2.
Synergy Skill [Water Identification] has reached level 2.
Jas was starting to feel a strain on his mana as he fought the rising heat with his cooling strips.
Quickly he scanned around, but saw no monsters, even on the ceiling. Finally, he checked the ground. It was the sa kind of hard packed dirt as the first floor. The cavern walls were also the sa, except that where on the first floor of the Dungeon, Brown Iron Ore had been the most common, on this floor, it was Red Iron Ore. This wouldn't have been very interesting, given that over the last few floors Jas had been able to accumulate a decent stockpile of Red Iron. But this ore…
[Ore Identification]: Red Iron Ore, Salamander Essence
Smith Class Skill [Ore Identification] has reached level 4.
It was teeming with Salamander Essence.
Jas couldn't resist. He pulled out so warding stakes and set up a largish ward around a large vein of the Red Iron Ore, and then pulled out a pick-axe and got to work mining. The work felt like it went quickly, and he mined out plenty of the essence-filled ore, but he had to stop.
The ward had failed.
Jas whirled around, hastily picking up his shield and dropping his pick-axe. He scanned around, looking for monsters, but he didn't see any. He tried to add more mana to the ward, but the connection was broken.
Cautiously, he picked up one of the now-inert warding stakes.
[Appraisal]: Forged Iron Stake, Quality: Low, Durability: 0/5 Broken]
The tal felt soft in his hands, and as he squeezed, he felt it give just a little bit.
It was also hot, and seemingly no longer enchanted.
Thankfully Jas had plenty of spares, but losing three warding stakes still wasn't good. It was ti to go. He gathered his things, and all the ore he had mined out, and climbed the long staircase back to the flying serpent's boss room.
Once out, Jas removed and inspected all his armor as well.
[Appraisal]: Wind Visored Helt, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 17/19, Enchantnt: Wind Resistance (25)
[Appraisal]: Wind Cuirass, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 18/20, Enchantnt: Wind Resistance (25)
[Appraisal]: Wind Armored Skirt, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 8/12, Enchantnt: Wind Resistance (30)
[Appraisal]: Wind Codpiece, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 7/10, Enchantnt: Wind Resistance (23)
[Appraisal]: Wind Greaves, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 12/14, Enchantnt: Wind Resistance (25)
[Appraisal]: Wind Cuisses, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 13/15, Enchantnt: Wind Resistance (30)
[Appraisal]: Wind Left Pauldron, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 13/16, Enchantnt: Wind Resistance (27)
[Appraisal]: Wind Right Pauldron, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 11/14, Enchantnt: Wind Resistance (27)
[Appraisal]: Wind Bracers, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 10/13, Enchantnt: Wind Resistance (30)
[Appraisal]: Wind Cleat Boots, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 10/16, Enchantnt: Wind Resistance (22)
The Enchanter grimaced. Even with the cooling strips active, the heat had damaged his armor and worse, the enchantnts. He forced himself to check his Earth War Hamr and Green Iron Shield, as well.
[Appraisal]: Earth War Hamr, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 9/15, Enchantnt: Heavy Blow (4)
[Appraisal]: Green Iron Round Shield, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 5/15, Enchantnt: Reflect (6)
It took all of Jas' self-control not to scream in fury.
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