Now that he had rested up a little bit and finished preparations, it was about time Rael began clearing this maze out.
With that, however, came the skill upgrades as well.
Fireball: [Level 1 → 8 | 1,852/2,263] (Common)
—Cast a fireball, dealing 250–750 → 600-1800 Fire Damage and inflicting enemies with the (Burning) status ailment. Enemies set on fire by the skill take 150 → 325 damage every 10 seconds.
Cost: 300 MP → 475 MP
The damage increased by a lot, and frankly, it made his good melee weapon seem insignificant.
However, both magic and physical combat had their pros and cons, which Rael would explore later on.
For now, however, he looked over the map, swiftly counting each and every one of the monsters present.
In total, aside from the two elites and the boss, only 101 skeletons remained.
But just thinking about the amount of experience he would get was more than enough to get Rael excited.
That was why he decided to try one genius idea out.
The walls are made of stone... but... Rael approached the wall and stabbed his sword into it.
A small gash was formed, but definitely not big enough for what he wanted to do.
Therefore, he turned to the big-boy weapons.
Category: Utility/Explosives
•—Balance: 8,538 Trell—•
• Hand Grenade (Common): 2000 Trell
• Thermite Charge (Common): 2500 Trell
• Stick of Dynamite (Common): 4000 Trell
• Cryo Bomb (Uncommon): 8000 Trell
Hahahaha.... Fuck... Rael's hands shook as he glanced at the Cryo Bomb.
—Cryo Bomb (Uncommon)
Ice Damage: 5,000-15,000
Special Option: Remote detonation. Upon detonation, trigger the skill: Frost Nova (Rare)
—Cover a 100-meter diameter with frost, dealing 1,000 Ice damage per second to enemies within it.
Without wasting a second, Rael bought it.
His plan was to bait all the monsters to one location and then detonate the Cryo Bomb, effectively killing all of them.
An 8,000 Trell investment sounded pretty lucrative when he would get multiple times that in just a couple of minutes.
The grin that had formed on his face couldn't be hidden as he dug at the wall, until finally, a hole just barely big enough formed.
He was in a fairly open space, so all that was left to do was simply put the explosive in the wall and bring the monsters over to it.
For a menacing bomb, it was surprisingly only the size of a hand grenade, but despite that, Rael trusted in the description before placing it inside the wall.
Taking a deep breath, he checked the map and figured out a looping path that would bring him back to where he currently was.
But just before he went, there was something he had to do, even if it was minor.
Constitution: 20 Trell
Intelligence: 20 Trell
Agility: 112 (+80) → 130 (+80)
Movement Speed Increase: 71% (+15%) → 80% (+15%)
A little more speed is always best, Rael thought with satisfaction and glanced at his balance.
•—Balance: 18 Trell—•
He almost felt like crying, but the gains would be massive either way.
Therefore, Rael finished his preparations and glanced around, making sure he didn't forget where the bomb was.
And soon, he began running, narrowly dodging the traps that shot out of the wall, as he arrived before the first group of monsters.
"Fuckers! Come get some of this!" He yelled while dragging his sword across the ground, making sure they would follow him.
And they did, much faster than he expected, in fact.
He sped up, arriving toward another group, and then another, until finally, he ran into one of the Elite monsters.
—Skeleton Brute (Rare Elite) [Level 30] [23,250/23,250 HP]
It was one massive skeleton, almost like what he could expect to see from an ogre.
Rael took a deep breath before jumping upward and landing right on the Skeleton Brute's bony shoulders.
"Heya, what do you say we—"
His words were cut short by the onslaught of arrows flying toward him, which he blocked by using the Skeleton Brute's body.
Nonetheless, that seemed to be enough to anger the massive thing as it turned to where Rael was and began running toward him.
Taking that as a success, Rael continued throughout the maze, making as much noise as possible, until he finally made it to the second and final Elite monster of this maze.
—Skeleton Abomination (Rare Elite) [Level ??] [41,500/41,500 HP] (+10,000)
Honestly, he didn't even know what to make of it.
It was a skeleton, sure, but its bones were fully black, and they were all in weird positions.
Coupled with that, he could see strange black ooze dripping from its bones, sending a shiver down his spine.
Rael proceeded to carefully guide around it before slamming his sword on the wall a couple of times.
As he did, the entire area he was in turned toward him, and, followed by the already-following shit ton of monsters, he moved on.
There were only a couple more areas left, excluding the boss.
The boss area just so happened to be a separate room, so if he went inside, he would be sandwiched by the other monsters behind him.
Nonetheless, Rael ran up to another group and tagged them before swiftly checking his map.
That's all of them, he concluded, and soon made his way back to where he placed the bomb.
The ground was shaking from the number of monsters that were still behind him, but aside from a grin and his pockets practically begging for money, he felt pretty calm.
Soon, he arrived there and stared at the blue bomb before glancing backward.
Monsters were swarming in, and now all that was left to do was get to safety.
Rael had made a few holes in the wall, and by jumping upward, he jammed his sword in them, climbing as high as he could, until finally, he was nearly 20 meters above the ground, overlooking all the skeletons.
They were trying to climb toward him, some standing practically in front of the bomb.
Therefore, Rael made sure his leverage was solid enough not to fall, as he looked to the side.
He pressed "Yes" without hesitation and waited for the explosion to kill them all.
However, nothing happened, which made Rael tilt his head.
Huh? Is this shit broken—