They all heard the announcement. After everyone in Monique's Party finally found a foe they could shine against, their strategies became more refined and they quickly worked their way through the maze of tunnels, further into the deep.
Being sieged by a horde of enemies, with the gates to a boss room in their sight, they all suddenly heard the announcement that they had leveled up. Driven by the good news, they renewed their efforts and soon cleaned out the area in front of the gate.
"There were a lot. It's a shame they don't drop anything bust these crystals, " Tekar commented, as they spent some time picking up what was left behind by their attackers. The ground was littered with small crystals.
"For the third time, they are elemental nuclei, Tekar. Even if Seth doesn't want them, they have a lot of use for alchemy. Now keep picking them up," Alison scolded from behind. The alchemist had been quite happy when the elites on the lower level started dropping relatively pure materials for elemental potions.
"Bad news, looks like we have a problem. The door is secured by a lock. Alison, come take a look." Monique interrupted them. While the rest had been busy picking loot, Monique had taken a loot at the gate to the boss room.
The gate was covered in murals of the elemental people they had met so far. It seemed to tell their history and there were four distinct recesses.
"Oh no..." Alison mumbled when she looked at the door.
"It's what I think it is, right?" Monique asked, hoping for Alison to deny her worries.
"Yeah, it's what it looks like. A puzzle door and we probably need four keys from somewhere in the dungeon...," the alchemist confirmed her worries in a defeated tone.
"God, I hate puzzle doors!" Ray exclaimed from behind.
"That means-" Tekar began his question, but Jonah interrupted him with the answer.
"Jep, backtracking. We have to find the four things that fit those recesses. A quick guess would be something that has to do with the elements, in each elemental area." the swordsman gave his guess.
Jonah had played his fair share of games himself, but they had ample experience with dungeons that also relied on puzzles to keep the adventurers from entering the final boss room. Enough for every member of the party to hate them, as it usually meant a lot of searching and backtracking. A big waste of time.
"We could just skip the boss room and look for another dungeon," Shay suggested readily.
They were all tired of walking around this maze of tunnels. Now they were supposed to look for four keys? They had a hard time getting excited about that task.
"But we can't ignore what might be in there. There might very well be a legendary item or material in there, if you think of the difficulty of the dungeon," Alison opposed just leaving.
They had to acknowledge that the reward was usually proportional to the difficulty of the dungeon. It was a common notion that the more obnoxious the dungeon was, the better was the treasure at its end. Why else would the safety measurements be so complicated?
"Fine, let's try at least, before we give up," Monique decided with a shrug, seeing the sudden glint in her party's eyes.
Since they were on the fire level, it seemed natural to start looking there. At least no new foes started respawning during their search, so they were able to quickly track back their path and look for things they might have overlooked before.
"You can't tell me we overlooked this on the way down," Ray exclaimed exasperated
"No, no, this wasn't here when we came past the first time," Alison calmed him.
On their way back up, they suddenly found a gate in a formerly dead end. Alison knew clearly this had been a dead end before. This meant it only appeared after they reached the puzzle door. They never had the chance to simply collect the keys on their way down.
The gate looked like two door wings made of hardened lava, very drippy and dark, but not locked.
"Let's see what the boss of the fire floor is like," Tekar stated and pushed open the door at Monique's signal.
A wave of hot air broke out as if someone opened the doors to a blast furnace. They may have suffered some unexpected damage if the current was not split by Tekar's barrier, standing in front of the group.
Looking over the tank's shoulder, they could see that the boss room was a rock platform, floating on a sea of magma and only connected to the gate by a thing and brittle catwalk. On this stage stood a tall being made of half-molten rock.
It had no defined legs, making it look like a huge muscular man in a rope. His upper body was black, with a red glow coming from the cracks, while his robe was a curtain of continuously flowing molten rock.
"What a generic boss design," Jonah commented pissed. The man really hated puzzles and backtracking in dungeons, he had to vent to the boss.
<General of Fire, Maltus lv.--- (Boss)>
Contrary to his design, the boss was something special. It was the first enemy the party met that had a hidden level. Seth had told them that this most likely meant that it was above lv.100. This meant it was probably the strongest boss they had faced so far.
"You have come quite far, Challengers. But your meddling will stop here. Nobody will stand in the way of our eternal Kingdom," the boss said in a booming voice as they stepped on the start of the bridge. The surrounding magma was roiling at his words.
"This is probably the best chance to use it, can I?" Shay asked his party leader excitedly. "Tekar, Alison, can you cast the barriers?" Monique asked instead of answering.
"Are we really doing this?" Tekar asked a little worried.
"What are you worried about, I gave to the potion to counter it, no?" Alison chided him.
"Ah, I-I know, it's just...drowning is scary," the big guy shrugged.
"It will be scarier for him," the alchemist pointed at the boss.
"Stop bickering and get ready. Shay do it."
The party, still standing at the beginning of the catwalk was enveloped by several barriers of different attributes. Shay stepped forward with his ring in hand. It was the ultimate skill bestowed by the blessing of Oceanus. Because of its nature, it had a limited use in a dungeon, it also had a long cooldown. However, this was probably the best situation to use it effectively.
"To wash away and consume everything- The Flood!" he chanted, holding the ring at the edge of the shield.
"What is this nonsense!?" Maltus exclaimed, but it was too late to stop was coming.
A huge whirlpool broke out from the ring and the world drowned. Steam billowed as masses of water flowing from the ring filled the boss room. The party could only see the boiling water rising at the edges of their shields and listen to the angry bellows of the boss.
Soon the boss's room was filled with water, but the stream from the ring did not stop. Their vision was not good in the turbulent water, but the formerly bright boss room had now turned into a dark underwater cave. Dim orange light illuminated the scene from the few cracks in the solidified magma.
"Stop it, Shay. This is enough:" Monique told him, but the water mage had no method to stop the skill. Once invoked, it had to be completed.
"This means this is a competition between Tekar's shield and the gates of the Boss Room," Alison summed up the situation.
"I think he sees that a little differently," Jonah added, pointing at the dark figure slowly drawing closer to their little bubble. A banner of dark smoke followed him in the water.
<General of Fire, Maltus lv.--- (Boss)
Health 730/1000
Status: Freezing>
As the boss got closer, they could see his health ticking down by 5 points per second, but it was not quick enough to kill him before he reached the party. If the boss managed to break their shield, they would be forced to fight him underwater.
Monique tried to reach out of the shield but quickly pulled back. Her pale skin had a rosy hue.
"What's the water temperature like?" Jonah asked hesitating.
"Boiling."
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