"Wow. Is this what Superman feels when people try to shoot him with guns?" Alex muttered as he casually approached the two fire salamanders, who didn’t hesitate to bombard him with Fire Bullets.
Unfortunately for them, their attacks dispersed whenever they were about to hit the young man’s body. Although Alex had experienced this a few times already, he still felt invincible.
Emboldened by his Fire Immunity, the young man determinedly pointed his sword at the monsters.
"This is Sparta!" Alex shouted before charging at the two monsters, who were in disbelief at the sight of someone tanking their attacks with ease.
The two monsters switched to close combat as soon as the young man was close enough. Having anticipated this, the latter threw a brittle vial toward the head of one of the salamanders.
As the bottle broke upon impact, the black pepper and chili powder immediately took effect. The salamander spun its body around in a death roll, as if hoping that doing so would remove whatever stinging his eyes.
With one of the monsters distracted, Alex engaged the other salamander in close quarters.
Hateful hisses and screeches escaped the monster’s lips as Alex’s sharp sword repeatedly slashed his opponent’s body.
He had fought quite a number of salamanders by this point, so he had grown familiar with their attack patterns to the point that battling them took him less than two minutes.
After taking down the first monster, he quickly finished off the second, which was still handicapped from its momentary blindness and thus unable to defend itself properly.
As usual, both monsters left monster cores upon their deaths. Alex picked them up and headed to his next battle.
The difference between the third and fourth floor was that monsters often attacked in groups of two or three in the latter.
On his way to his next destination, Alex found himself face to face with three ash hounds.
Instead of backing down, he accepted the challenge. Anyway, he wasn’t fighting alone.
Dim Dim held a brittle vial in its hands.
Their plan was simple—Dim Dim would throw the vial at the monster that would attack Alex when he was busy dealing with two of the monsters in front of them.
Unlike the two fire salamanders, Alex had a harder time defeating the ash hounds as they were obviously used to fighting as a team.
They also moved fast, encircling the young man and looking for a good opportunity to strike.
Alex charged at one of them, and the two hounds didn’t hesitate to lunge at him from behind.
However, he had already expected such a move from them, so he turned around and used his shield to bash one of the ash hounds on the head while he used his sword to hack the other.
The first hound took this as an opportunity to launch a sneak attack.
But Dim Dim was ready for it.
The Dim Sum God flung the brittle vial at the monster’s head, hitting it perfectly.
A whimper emerged from the hound as Alex spun around, imitating the sword skill that Claire had used when fighting against the dire wolves.
Of course, Alex didn’t have the Whirlwind Slash skill.
He however had the Slash Skill.
So, the moment he said it, the skill activated, empowering his sword strike to make it hit harder than usual.
Knowing ELO revolved around the concept of repetition, Alex had practiced the whirlwind slash stance during his free time.
He might not have a particular skill now, but as long as he mimicked the same motions over and over again until they came to him naturally, he believed it was only a matter of time before he acquired the skill.
By then, even without the skill, he could unleash a Whirlwind Slash, which he had forcibly gotten through constant practice.
The slash hit the side of the hound’s body, dealing considerable damage to it.
But Alex knew that the monster was on its last legs, so he didn’t hesitate to take a step forward and thrust his sword into its body one more time.
The moment the sword pierced through the hound’s body, its life finally ended.
When Alex saw that it was starting to turn into particles of light, he shifted his target to the two remaining monsters.
Dealing with two ash hounds was easier than dealing with three.
In time, he managed to kill the monsters without too much effort.
"That was some intense workout," Alex muttered as he wiped the sweat on his forehead with the back of his hand.
"Phew!" Dim Dim imitated the young man and also wiped its forehead as if it had been the one battling the monsters earlier.
Just as Alex was feeling more confident about his fighting strategy, he saw three flame scarabs flying in his direction.
Instead of fighting them, Alex chose to run.
Their kamikaze attacks were a combination of fire and wind elements, sending powerful shockwaves upon detonation.
They were perhaps the only monsters on the third and fourth floors that Alex didn’t want to touch.
Getting injured at this point was not part of his plan, so he only fought monsters he was confident in defeating, like the fire salamanders and ash hounds.
Half an hour later, Alex came across a fire salamander that was bigger than the others.
’This must be the Mini Boss Master talked about,’ Alex thought as he observed the monster from afar.
Its body was crimson in color and it had bright yellow markings all over its body.
It was at least six meters long and was guarded by two other fire salamanders.
< Crimson Fire Salamander>
Monster Rank: Rank 2 Mini Boss Monster
Note: You don’t fight a crimson salamander. You survive it. They were once docile beasts, but it all ended when the Fire Nation attacked.
’This one is very tricky to fight,’ Alex thought.
Judging by its size, it would be hard to fight against it in a one-on-one battle.
Not to mention, it wasn’t alone.
It had two normal fire salamanders as its bodyguards.
Alex might not fear their flames, but he certainly feared the crimson salamander’s tail and claws.
The fire salamanders had lashed him with their tails during battle, and since the Mini Boss was technically of the same species, he assumed it would do the same.
After making a decision, the young man decided to withdraw... at least for now.
’I’ll save you for last,’ Alex thought as he headed in the direction of the temple, where he planned to change his Job Class for the first time.
He believed that the added skills and abilities he would gain after changing jobs would give him an edge against the monster that ruled over the fourth floor of the Etherion Domain.