Apinsig
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Chapter 281 Homesteading in a fantasy world
🕑 Added 2023-07-26 14:55:28 +0000 UTCPOV Luana
Being completely connected to my shield, I felt the impact of those small rocks. Each one felt like a mountain and my shield started to crack, but I continued to weave the spell so I could repair and strengthen it continuously.
I collapsed from having spent nearly 30% of my total mana and pushing my mind to its limits. But I succeeded. The shield was cracked by the end, but it was able to keep us safe. Rich told us that he believed that might happen again, and I suspected that we were going to have to stay mobile as well.
But I hadn’t seen the true extent of the attack. It wasn’t targeted at us. The entire room was torn apart. There was no escape from that attack. I felt how I swallowed the last moisture left in my mouth as I realized I would need to do that again, possibly more than once.
The next almost three hours went by in a blur. I was completely exhausted so much so that I wasn’t even able to stand up. It has been almost three hours from the first time I needed to use the shield spell. I had to use it two more times and if I was correct, this bastard of a monster was going to use it once again quite soon.
Horus reassured me that either way, we were not going to need the next shield as Rich was going to kill the monster or he wasn't and we were dead no matter what we will try to do. I don’t think it was as comforting as Horus thought it would be.
Horus and Arabella were the best off as they had done nearly nothing. Adam was almost in the same situation as me as he has needed to fix Rich up a few times. Rich, the person who is doing the most in this fight, however, looked like he was just having fun. It was honestly sickening how good he was at fighting and that body of his was straight up cheating. Fortunately, he was on my side so I wasn’t complaining that much.
My energy training truly sucked but even I was able to feel how much of it he was storing up after having been hit by such strong attacks for so long. If this didn't kill the monster, nothing will but how would he be able to even use that much stored-up power, I had no idea.
“I’m going in,” we heard Rich speak in a calm and cold voice. That voice sent shivers down my back and I was pretty sure it was going to be a recurring voice for my nightmares. It promised death. We all looked as Rich activated some sort of a last-stand ability which ramped up his energy power even more and then he stopped suppressing the power he had been collecting. I had to shield my eyes, he was glowing so brightly. “How isn’t his body turning into dust?” I heard Adam ask.
As soon as Adam finished saying that, we heard a painful scream. While Rich seemed to be able to somewhat handle this amount of power, it certainly came with a cost. I suspect that he wouldn’t be able to handle this for much longer but he also didn't need to. All the power inside his body started to move towards his sword.
He didn’t hesitate and started striking with his ranged attack as soon as he reached some sort of a threshold within his sword. The first attack that landed left a large scar but every other second he was able to launch an attack as powerful as the first.
Every hit made the monster stumble backwards and more and more rocks from its body started to fall to the ground. It lost its left arm first and it didn't take long until one of its legs couldn't bear its weight and it started to fall to the ground. Even without one of its arms and legs, it still tried to crawl towards Rich.
But the power Rich held also started to wane after so many attacks but the last one he held in his sword seemed to be a step above the others and this time he didn’t launch a ranged attack but rushed in. The monster tried to attack him with his arm but he just dodged it and delivered a large overhead strike on the monster's head. The sword pierced through the rock and split the head into two pieces, finally ending this prolonged fight.
I slumped in relief as this fight was finally over. Releasing the spells that I still held onto, my mind relaxed and I fell asleep hoping that they will allow me to sleep until I was fully recovered as I really didn’t want to deal with the mana exhaustion headaches.
POV Arabella
I watched as Luana slumped into unconsciousness. The next one to go was Rich, and then I saw Adam perform his final spell to heal Rich up from the damage he took from channelling so much power, after which he also blacked out.
We had somehow survived with three party members completely exhausting themselves while me and Horus were completely fresh. We just stood there not knowing what to do. I don’t know about Horus but I felt completely useless in this fight.
“I guess let’s bring Rich back here and make this our campsite for a while until everyone’s recovered,” Horus said and in agreement, we started to move towards Rich but then I stopped. “Hey Horus, perhaps it’s better if we bring Luana and Adam to Rich and make the campsite there.” My words stopped him and he looked between Rich and the two mages, let out a tired sigh. “You are correct, bringing those two would be way easier than trying to move that fat ass.”
“Horus, he’s in no way fat. I would say that he’s actually in perfect physical condition. But I will concede that he weighs way more than he should.” It didn’t take us long until camp was set and we didn't even have to worry about defences as the door never opened and the only way out of this room was to go downwards. “Horus, this place seemed to be way harder than it should have been.” I asked and after a little while he answered.
“Little is known about what lays so deep in this dungeon so we most likely just got unlucky and ended up in one of the hardest section on this floor but from the few books I’ve read of personal accounts of this dungeon this far deep, one floor you might breeze through like we did the last floor and then right afterwards the next floor will get you killed almost immediately, kinda like with this fight. But those are rare occurrences, mostly it's still a linear rise in challenge, we just have to hope that the next floor will not be like this one.”
If that’s the case, would it be wise to go past floor 75? If I remember correctly most don’t go past that but our goal is to reach the core which seems like a stupid decision. I continue to listen as Horus spoke about the dungeon but my eyes drifted towards the sword that was only a few feet from me, still held in Rich's right hand.
The wood in the handle called for me but the sword itself didn’t seem welcoming. I kinda wanted to touch it and see if I could verify the maker's mark because it’s hard to believe Rich made this sword. It just didn’t make any sense because how could he be so good at crafting and fighting?
Making the bow I can kinda accept as he seemed to have been a master bow crafter in his other life but there’s no way he should have been able to make this sword or even have access to materials to even attempt something like that.
“Horus, what did the boss monster drop?” I didn’t get an answer to my question so I look towards him to find him scanning the room. “I don’t think there is a drop which is super weird for this floor unless of course Rich is on top of it but that seems unlikely.”
After we slept, Rich was the first one to wake up complaining about the headache and looking way too cute with his sleepy face. “Son of a bitch, I must have slept really badly as my chest hurts so much. I don’t even think I got hit there once,” he complained as soon as he had something to eat and I once again wanted to ask him 120 questions but this simply wasn’t the place or time but at least I know where he lived so he wouldn't be able to escape those questions.
Adam and Luana woke up almost 12 hours after Rich and they needed an entire extra day to get back into fighting shape. We were all quite glad to be out of this area as it brought nothing but misery without giving us anything back, well perhaps a few skill levels for the ones who fought but for me, this was basically a zero-gain floor.
Comments
Zarik0
Really hope that Rich don't start to open to much and start to say everything about him for x no reason at some point (like too many time in others story) to Arabella just because she ask question and is pushy/pushfull in her interaction/move or etc, as she is more or less a stranger and MC know its a can of worm and potential huge trouble here, so him having a good relationship starting forming with her is yes, but that he keep reservation and distance on some subjects with her plz :)
Apinsig
doing better, new chapter is up now :)
Borindak
I've really been enjoying the story, and missing it the last few days. Hope all is well for you.
