03 — Bearing Fruit in the Third Boss Room

03 — Bearing Fruit in the Third Boss Room

I trained my sword and shield work one-on-one with the death knight and hardened my reflexes against the mob on the tenth floor. There was still sloppiness in my form, efficiency to be carved out, split-second judgments to be sharpened. If I could land even one hit consistently, squarely, like a machine, and I augmented it with Physical Enhancement, it’d take me to the next level. Teams of ghouls, mummies, ghosts, and skeletons (knights and archers alike) fell to me in droves.

This was how I spent the three months leading up to tackling the third boss room. I put my chances at success at “fairly high,” but I wasn’t just aiming for success. I was aiming for the perfect victory.

Three months ago, I’d nearly met my doom at the hands of mere ghouls more times than I could count. But I had my healing powers. One step at a time, I carefully polished my skills. And now I could face them. That was what hard work was about. I could feel my familiarity and experience with combat grow with each battle.

No one had been on my case about the lack of progress for half a year, but I was starting to feel the pull. I was itching to move forward before I became some layabout, mooching off my wages with nothing to show for it.

“Take that!” I cried. “Too easy!”

I had my offensive sword-and-spear style, and my orthodox sword-and-shield style, and now my Physical Enhancement technique added kicks to my arsenal. The undead were simple to read and vaporized into stones with a single well-placed strike.

I was racking up so many points from all the gems I’d collected that I was running out of things to use them for. I had everything I needed now, and these items wouldn’t break any time soon, so I didn’t see myself in need of replacements in the foreseeable future. To help curb the problem of excess gems, Cattleya started letting me custom-order weapons from the dwarves. They also got in a new, more resistant magic robe, far more powerful than the one the Church had issued me (and that one was worth ten whole platinum). I snagged it for two million points. Not that I had much to compare it to, since I’d never actually taken a magical hit head-on with my first robe.

The dwarves were more than happy to lend their services to their strange new battle-healer client...which was just what I needed. Rumors circulating amongst people I’d never even met.

“I’m just glad I have friends who’re there for me,” I muttered. “I feel like I’m getting stronger too...even if I haven’t leveled up in close to half a year.”

Still, cutting down shambling undead hordes wasn’t a bad job. At least I didn’t have to fight live monsters or bandits like Lumina’s group. I didn’t know how I would’ve held up if these had been flesh and blood enemies. Being able to go all out against an opponent with a clean conscience while worries had me feeling down kept me fresh and alive.

Over and over these thoughts churned in my head, and then the day of my third boss fight arrived.

I stood before the door, making my final preparations.

“Weapons, check. Armor, check. Magic bag, check. Buffs, up. Substance X, good to go.” I downed my mug and heaved a sigh. “All right, let’s do this.”

I slowly pushed open the door and cautiously inched inside. It slammed shut, light illuminating the room. Only this time, it wasn’t a square. I stood on a conical slope, tilting downward.

But that was the least of my concerns.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

The threat before me was like nothing I’d ever faced. Three wights. Five death knights. Every one of their glowing, red eyes now focused on me.

I revved up my magical energy, churning it within me and enhancing my entire body at once, then lit the fuse of battle with a chant.

“Oh holy hand of healing. Oh birthing breath of the land. Heed my prayer. Banish the impurities before me and shepherd them unto deliverance. Purification!”

I ran along the sloped floor as I cast, to keep from being surrounded or instantly overwhelmed by a concentrated attack. But, unsurprisingly, no matter how much I chanted, not one of the eight was nice enough to go down for me. They did freeze, though, giving me enough time to stash my sword, summon a dagger, and throw it haphazardly. My only goal was to thin their numbers.

It sank right into one of the knights’ skulls. I flung more daggers, but anything I threw at the wights, the knights blocked, now freed from their paralysis. They raised their staves and fired spells. Without the intelligence to even lead their shots, though, the attacks were easily evaded as I continued to run.

The death knights never budged from their defensive position at the flat center of the room. None of the magic hurled at me was particularly powerful, so if this was all they had then it was my turn, I decided.

I bombarded them with Purification after Purification. After my fifth casting, I sensed the miasma in the center starting to thin. I cast a sixth round of the spell, augmenting my strength to its very limits, and once the undead were completely immobilized, I charged right in with a throaty battle cry. I had a little something of my own to try out.

They knew I was coming, but they were frozen stiff and the knights could barely raise their shields, the wights their staves to cast lances of blackened water, air, and earth.

My strategy had paid off so well that it could only have been a stroke of pure luck—Monsieur Luck. The God of Fate almost seemed to be there behind me, every step of the way.

Unfazed by my enemies’ spells, I held up my shield, which was strengthened by my barrier magic. My resilient paladin armor and magic robe fortified me further. Several lances struck me but dissipated painlessly as if they were nothing.

The knights lowered their defenses and adopted battle stances, and just like that the battle turned in my favor. It was just what I’d been waiting for.

I deflected the strikes of two blades, and when all eight were within range, I chanted, “Oh holy hand of healing. Oh birthing breath of the land. Heed my prayer. Take my energy for an angelic breath and mend the beings of this realm. Area High Heal!”

This was what I’d been waiting to try out. And it worked. Far better than my earlier cleansing magic.

The monsters shrieked in agony and dropped their weapons one by one. Their pained cries sounded almost tortured, to the point of making my stomach churn, but this was my chance and I couldn’t let it pass. I approached the wights, chanting a second Area High Heal, and cleaved each of them in two. They were no match for my enhanced strength and instantly vanished.

I then completed my chant, and with the second Area High Heal the death knights, too, began to melt away. It was that easy.

“Phew,” I sighed. “That went just about perfectly.”

Or so I thought, until I considered how much magic I’d spent all at once. There had to have been a more efficient method, I began to think.

I gathered up the stones, purified the items, and stashed them away. I also purified the room itself, in case that thick, purple smoke the undead had disappeared in was toxic. All the while, I thought back on the battle, grateful that I’d taken the time to learn the new spell. I was certain that if this boss had been my first, I’d have died. As overwhelming as the horde on the tenth floor had been, a swarm of zombies were still nothing compared to death knights.

This fight had certainly been far from perfect. It only seemed flawless because things had happened to go well for me. Admonishments were all that came to mind now.

“I don’t want to think about how screwed I would have been if I’d had to take on this many in the first boss room.”

As I wrapped everything up, the staircase to the next level appeared in the same rumbly fashion as it always did. Floor forty seemed to exist, just as the pope had said.

If the death knights in the labyrinth’s halls were sort of like foot soldiers, novices, then the ones of the boss rooms had to have been real veteran knights. I wondered what sort of ranking system the death knights followed, then remembered there were monster taming skills. It would have been interesting to chat with someone proficient in them.

The Church’s knights had supposedly made it this far in the past, so the monsters that had caused them to turn on each other were probably close. There had to have been some treasure chest or key item to help with that, right?

Suddenly, I realized how plain my life at the Church was. I was like some ascetic monk, fighting evil spirits on my path to zenhood.

I sat down to have lunch, the room nice and clean after my cleansing magic, then dove straight down to floor thirty-one.

The first enemy to cross my path was a ghoul. Its unusual hue implied that these creatures would be a step above their counterparts above. I immediately backtracked to the boss room in shock, to find five death knights waiting for me.

“Looks like I’ve got a new training room.”

These five knights’ skills were likely on par with, if not greater than, my own. They’d make the perfect fodder for my magic and Physical Enhancement training. My stomach ran on its own schedule, however, and eventually I had to acquiesce to its growling.

Regardless, this day, the one hundred and ninety-eighth of my descent into the labyrinth, marked my victory against the thirtieth-floor boss.