Chapter 76 - Dungeon Run (4)

Wind began swirling around their bodies as they channeled Sniping Shot, a high-damage skill perfect for landing before combat started.

"You know how much HP this thing has?" Point Blank asked, quickly glancing sideways at Arthur.

Given how much he already knew about this dungeon, it didn’t seem that crazy to her that Arthur might even know the monster’s exact HP. Was it weird and suspicious? Absolutely. But she just wanted to clear the dungeon, not sit around thinking about whatever Arthur was hiding from her.

"I think it’s got around 5k HP," he answered. "After our shots, I’m guessing there’ll still be around 2k, maybe 2500 left to shave off. So it’s not going to be easy, especially in a cramped spot like this."

The problem with that corridor was that there was nowhere to dodge. Just standing side by side without bumping into each other was already a struggle. Rolling sideways to dodge attacks? That was completely out of the question.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

They released their arrows at the same time. The shots flew hard and fast toward the chest. Both hit dead on, but neither pierced through. Point Blank was used to watching Sniping Shot punch through armor, sometimes even trees. But it couldn’t get through a chest that looked older than her grandmother.

[730 damage dealt]

[450 damage dealt]

Their damage had come out similar. Arthur frowned, and immediately realized the stupid mistake he’d made. He’d been so focused on how to get through the dungeon and grab the keys to fight the boss that he’d completely forgotten to activate Stealth.

He’d basically thrown away a 100% damage bonus. He could have dealt 1460 to the mimic, not just 730.

"What happened to your damage?" Point Blank snapped right away, nervous that the monster was now starting the fight with way more HP than it should have.

Arthur was nervous too. The mimic was no easy fight.

"Relax," he tried to calm her down. "Focus on attacking from range and let me tank the monster. Yuki, wake up, it’s time to earn your keep."

The moment the mimic took damage, it dropped its chest form. Strange tentacles burst out from every side, and the lid swung open, revealing rows of horrifying teeth.

The chest was its head and mouth. The tentacles formed its body, like some kind of mutant octopus that moved as if it had legs.

Every mimic had a different form. This was the one they’d found here.

Arthur fired a couple more arrows while the creature was still rising to its feet, squeezing out as much damage as he could.

[110 damage dealt]

[110 damage dealt]

Point Blank copied his moves and did the same. Her damage was a lot lower, but it still helped.

Once the creature was fully upright and charging toward them, Arthur put away his bow and drew his steel sword imbued with ice. Without hesitating, he activated Sword Guard.

[Sword Guard - Active Skill (Lv. 1)]

[Description: Raise your sword and enter a defensive stance, reducing damage taken from incoming attacks.]

[Effect: Reduces damage taken from frontal attacks by 50% for 4 seconds. Each successful block increases the damage of your next sword attack by 30% + 20% Agility. This effect can trigger up to 3 times.]

[MP Cost: 15 MP]

[Cooldown: 28s]

The mimic swung one of its tentacles straight into Arthur’s sword.

[80 damage taken (50% blocked)]

That was a decent hit, but Arthur already had nearly 1k total HP, not to mention he could use a potion to recover a big chunk of it.

’I can take a lot of hits.’

The mimic didn’t stop. It came back in and bit him. That attack hit harder.

[130 damage taken (50% blocked)]

That gave Arthur 2 stacks of Sword Guard, bumping his next attack up by 60% plus 40% of his Agility.

’One more hit and I get the third stack.’

He had to block one more attack. While he held his ground, Point Blank kept shooting, mixing basic attacks with skills.

She had skills Arthur didn’t. After all, he could only pick 3 from the Ranger class.

"Piercing Shot!"

[330 damage dealt]

Solid damage from Point Blank. Every hit was chipping the mimic’s HP down. The creature attacked again, this time using a different ability.

A strange liquid shot out from inside its mouth, flying straight at Arthur. He was too close to dodge it.

He didn’t take any damage. What he got instead was a debuff, and it was worse.

[Blindness acquired]

[50% chance to miss attacks for 20 seconds]

Arthur had forgotten about that special ability. It was nearly impossible to remember every single detail, especially from a dungeon he’d cleared a long time ago.

Still, with 3 Sword Guard stacks built up, he needed to swing now and deal as much damage as possible, even with a 50% hit chance.

’I’m going to have to gamble on this and hope it lands.’

He activated Phantom Slash.

[Phantom Slash - Active Skill (Lv. 1)]

[Description: Unleash a series of fast slashes, attacking the target multiple times in a short period of time.]

[Effect: Deals 70% Weapon Damage + 35% Agility + 7% Strength as Physical Damage per hit. Strikes 4 times.]

[MP Cost: 20 MP]

[Cooldown: 24s]

[Total Damage: 280% Weapon Damage + 140% Agility + 28% Strength]

Arthur currently had 140 AGI points, 113 base and the rest from contracts and items. His Strength sat at 39 base and 51 with item bonuses.

Stack that on top of the Sword Guard bonus at 3 stacks, and his next attack was going to hit a lot harder than usual. It might even outdamage his Sniping Shot.

Of course, that was without Stealth active.

’Please hit. Please.’

With the blindness active, Arthur had to rely on luck to land the strike, and relying on luck was not something he liked doing.

He swung through a rapid series of slashes, and the total of every hit added up to something impressive. One of the strikes even landed as a critical, pushing the final number even higher.

[1206 damage dealt]

’I hit it! Hell yes.’

He couldn’t help smiling when the skill connected.

That was the combined damage from each individual Phantom Slash hit. It was absurdly high, and Point Blank was stunned.

The mimic was almost dead now, with all the damage she’d been stacking up during that whole time.

She was shocked again.

"What is that insane damage? Weren’t you supposed to be a crafter? What the hell is going on?"

The mimic staggered backward, its HP nearly at zero. That was when Yuki, who had been coiled around Arthur’s arm the whole time, decided to join in.

"Frost Breath!"

Yuki opened its mouth and blasted a stream of icy breath at the mimic, dealing a bit of damage. Well, to be honest, the damage was actually fairly high.

[340 damage dealt]

Dealing that much damage to a level 20 monster was pretty impressive.

The creature finally died. That was the killing blow.

And Yuki, who had done nothing but swoop in for the last hit, immediately started bragging.

"Good thing I was here to finish off such a powerful creature. You know, you really should thank me for all the damage I did. If it weren’t for me..."

The audacity of that little snake was something else.