Chapter 57: Submitted To A Demon
Nox had played his fair share of games in his previous life, and whenever he saw these double doors, he knew he was about to face the final boss. The intimidating aura emanating from the room solidified this thought even more.
'Immediately you enter, use your invisibility skill,' Nox telepathically communicated to the ant queen beside him.
Then, with a head nod, Nox pushed the door open and stepped inside the room, while Fluffington and Thirteen remained inside the taming space for the time being. Nox was planning to call them in when the appropriate time arrived.
Immediately, both he and the ant queen activated their respective skills, turning invisible.
The room they'd stepped into had blue marble tiles with similar-colored pillars that stretched skyward. In the middle of this vast room, which seemed to have been built by intelligent beings centuries ago, Nox found a massive mantis over 2 ft laying motionless on the ground.
The mantis's carapace was blue, similar to the ground and pillars, which made Nox wonder if it was a coincidence or if these decorations had been influenced by the mantis. He couldn't really tell, but he strongly suspected the former.
Since this dimension was once inhabited by civilized species, they might have been the ones to build this place to store all their treasures. The mantis must have wandered in and claimed the place as its territory.
'It seems to be sleeping. If I can just finish it in one hit,' Nox thought as he activated the [Analyze] skill.
Nox read through all the information carefully because he needed to know all the skills of the beast to formulate a plan to counter it. Some might argue that he could finish the fight swiftly as it was napping, but the fanged dagger was just a basic-rank equipment; how could it possibly end a King Tier monster in one hit?
'Hmmm, everything seems normal… wait.' A particular section of the monster's status had caught Nox's attention. 'Why is the HP zero?'
If the HP was very low, Nox would have been excited as he wouldn't need to exert himself too much to kill it, but seeing that the creature was already dead, he became restless instead!
'I need to get out of here!' Nox's hair stood on end and cold shivers ran through his spine. Why wouldn't he be scared? Whatever it was that could kill the furious-looking mantis was not to be trifled with. Did he misunderstand the mantis for the guardian beast? Could it be that there was a stronger demon residing in this place?
'But… Snakey said it was King Tier and this is King Tier… except,' Nox's eyes narrowed. 'They lied to me?'
But how? Weren't they scared of higher demons?
He needed to escape! Nox was about to call the ant queen into the beast taming space and flee this place. However, a loud whooshing sound resonated from above!
Nox didn't raise his head to look because he was obviously running to the door to save his butt, but he made out the figure of a shadowy figure descending from the ceiling of this room.
A moment later, a thunderous thud sounded with a gust of breeze that rushed forward in all directions. The figure perfectly landed on the body of the deceased mantis, caving a deep impression into its hard carapace.
The impact of the figure's landing sent a surge of fierce wind spreading outward in all directions, cutting the blue pillars in half. Several bangs went off as the pillars collapsed one after the other.
Since the [Phantom Cloak] was still activated, Nox didn't care about the falling pillars as they just passed through him as if he was incorporeal, but the same couldn't be said for the ant queen.
She could still get hit!
Luckily, she was wise and tried to evade the falling pillars.
Inside the taming space...
Thirteen and Fluffington were alerted by the sounds and they became restless. Because of their connection, they could feel Nox was in danger yet they couldn't come outside as he had strictly told them to remain inside.
Outside the ruin...
Snakey and her group were heading back to the Blight Castle when they heard an ear-splitting noise from behind.
Snakey halted and looked behind, then looked at her group. "Let us hurry!"
Previously they were walking, but after the command from their leader, the group of four were about to run when they saw someone coming their way with calm, leisurely steps.
They immediately stopped in their tracks, watching the man that was walking as if the entire forest belonged to him. Unlike the hideous demon, this man looked just like any other human.
With blue waist-length hair and a pair of different colored eyes, one blue while the other red, the man was a work of art that might even cause straight men to doubt their sexual preference.
However, Snakey and the group weren't smitten by this man's otherworldly look; instead, they became scared, holding their breath. The aura this man gave off was even more oppressive than the higher demon and Goliath combined.
This was because…this man was the lord of the Blight Castle!
But why was he here? Why was he coming in this direction?
Finally, the rain of pillars came to a stop. Unfortunately, at the same time, Nox's Phantom Cloak duration came to an end. The same for the ant queen and they became visible, visible for the figure that had descended from the lightless ceiling of this chamber to see them clearly.
"For a moment, I thought you wouldn't show up." The figure, a hulking four-armed human standing over 2 meters, commented as he jumped down from the dead mantis and landed on the ground. "I got so bored that I had to take down this mantis waiting for you."
[Goliath—Lv 101]
"I was right, those bastards tricked me…" Nox realized. 'It was never to hunt a King Tier, they simply submitted me to this demon…'
As the realization dawned on him, Nox wasn't consumed with anger because he knew the untrustworthy nature of demons. Instead, he tried to think of a way to escape this place because there was no way he could fight a level hundred demon while being level 5. It was too unrealistic!
"But it was not wasted effort though." The four-armed man continued and clenched all four arms, feeling the surge of power through his veins. After killing the mantis, he had leveled up, and the increase in stats had boosted his overall strength.
Now he was one level ahead of the higher demon. It was just what he needed before their clash.