Scaling down the staircase, I felt my heart beat quite intensely. With every step I descended down, a strong feeling of uncertainty just grew and grew inside me - I could feel my body just have this ever so slight feeling of fear and wish to just turn around and run as far as I could - just to get away from this place. I guess the initial surge of Magical Energy that I had felt when I had first approached this place had a greater impact on me than I thought…
My own body definitely hadn’t forgotten the fear I had felt.
However, despite these feelings, I pushed on and kept on descending down the staircase. As I got deeper and deeper, I began to feel more and more a strong presence down below me.
“Guess that’s the beast down there…”
I thought, shedding a slight sweat.
I haven’t even come face to face with the beast and yet, I could already tell that it was MILES stronger than anything I have faced up until now. Perhaps, even stronger than the Kitsune woman, who had wiped out half of the forest around us, when we fought.
Eventually, after scaling down the staircase for what felt like an eternity, I had reached the bottom of the stairs - torches suddenly lighting up and illuminating the tunnel in front of me. The walls on which the torches were placed had these engravings on them, as well as this strange texture to them - as if the walls of the tunnel had been built quickly and without a care for the quality of them.
They just looked like they were stitched together from whatever materials the people building this could get their hands on. I felt a shiver run down my spine for a second, before I began to slowly move down the tunnel. The pressure of the Magical Energy that was coming from down the tunnel was immense - it felt like there were massive heavy weights placed onto my back like a saddle.
Like the gravity in the place was stronger.
As I kept moving farther and farther into the tunnel, the engravings on the walls began to distort. The scenery in them began to change to a more grim one - one that felt like it had been ripped straight out of a horror movie.
There were depictions of humans burning alive, humans being eaten, as well as an entire town being destroyed - with the same strange looking creature at the center of it all. I had no way of telling whether these images were reflections of past events that had transpired here or whether they were just nonsensical drawings made by the people who made this place, after they had lost their minds - but at the very least I could tell that these scenes… Well, they weren’t good.
After slithering through the tunnel for a bit, I spotted an exit to the tunnel - with what looked like a room beyond it. At first, I stopped in my tracks and shed a sweat. There was this slight hesitance that I could feel rush through my body - as if I wasn’t sure whether or not I actually wanted to go through with this whole idea after all. However, after a quick inhale and exhale, I rushed forward and out into the room that the tunnel had led into.
The room I had entered was absolutely massive and in a mostly cylinder shape - with the ceiling stretching up quite high and having a dome like shape to it. The entire place was lit up by a giant chandelier at the top - hanging from the center of the dome like ceiling - which emitted such a strong light, that basically zero shadows were present in the room. Which meant that to use ‘Shadowlord’ down here, I was basically relying on my own shadow.
However, something else caught my eye immediately as soon as I entered the room - something a bit more… ominous. While the density of the Magical Energy in the room was abysmally high, so much so, that it felt suffocating just being here…
There were no enemies in sight.
Despite all those drawings of the strange creature as well as the roars I had heard while on the surface, the place itself seemed to be… empty.
“Surely not… No way this place is—”
Right before I could finish my thought, a loud roar echoed through the room, before the entire place shook violently. Then, the entrance to the tunnel I had gone through, suddenly closed off - before seemingly disappearing into the same texture as the rest of the walls in the room. I felt shivers run through my entire body, as it slowly curled up together.
I was most definitely not alone…
And I’ve been to enough dungeons now to know that when the only exit door to the room closes, it usually means that you’ve entered the so-called ‘Boss room’.
The room shook for a bit longer, before a large silhouette suddenly leapt down from above, landing in the center of the room, crashing down and kicking up a large cloud of dust as well as sending pebbles and other small debris flying everywhere. I quickly leapt back, before creating several small orbs of venom and firing off projectiles to destroy the incoming smaller debris.
The cloud of dust and dirt had mostly covered the thing that had just landed in the room, however I could ever so slightly make out a vague shadow inside the cloud - enough for me to activate ‘Erudition’ on it.
“Come on, give me some information about what I’m working with here…”
I slithered back, while sweating a bit nervously.
Before I could get the information I wanted, two pairs of red eyes suddenly shined through the cloud, before the cloud was slashed apart and a great force of wind was sent towards me - pushing me back a bit. Then, the beast took a few steps forward, placing its paws down heavily as it glared down at me.
In front of me stood a tall, large and imposing monster - a lion's body and head, a goat's head above the lions and to finish off the absolutely creepy and unsettling appearance, a snake for a tail. The beast glared down at me with all six eyes that were spread across the three different animal heads, each head letting out its own sound - the lion growling, the snake hissing and the goat… Honestly, I’m not sure.
Then, finally a report window appeared in front of me about the monster.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name; Chimera
Species; [Unknown]
Level; 70
A Monster created using the bodies and magical energy of other creatures in ancient times. It was revered as the gift of gods for its power and presence, however never received the blessing that its creators wished for it to gain.
[Proceed with EXTREME caution.]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
…This is a joke - right?
Before I got a chance to question it for very long, the beast roared before launching itself at me with such speed, I couldn’t keep up. My eyes widened, but before I could manage to do anything - like dodge - the monster grabbed me with its lion head and bit down on me hard. I felt pain rush through my body, as the beast shook me around before tossing me away into the wall.
I hit the wall pretty hard - but not hard enough to even crack it. I struggled to rise up, feeling immense pain rush through my back.
[ HP; 7,856/12,900 ]
“That much damage from a single attack? I have to avoid getting too close in that case…”
I shed a sweat, before the beast looked at me with shining eyes and disappeared from sight, appearing once again right in front of me, leaping towards me. It appeared as if the thing was teleporting around the place with how fast it was moving. I immediately slid into my own shadow, before dashing away from that spot as the Chimera landed on the spot where just a few seconds prior I was. I slid out of the shadows a bit later, as far away from the Chimera as I physically could be, before throwing a look over to it - however, my eyes widened as I noticed that the Chimera had vanished once again.
“Impossible–!”
Then, I felt something bite down into my body, as the snake tail of the beast had sunk its teeth into my body again. I coughed up a little bit of blood, before gritting my fangs and biting into the snake tail back – biting down hard enough for ‘Harvester’ to activate and easily tear through the snake's skin. Luckily, the snake let go of me as soon as this happened, hissing loudly, before the lion head tried to bite down on me again.
I quickly flipped my body around and onto the back of the Chimera, before letting go of the snake tail and coiling up, propelling myself up into the air.
Once in the air, I felt the warm feeling I had been hoping for, before the bite marks on my body closed up with a faint white light going across my body for a few seconds.
Wounds have been healed.
Through [Harvester] you have been granted the status;
-Blood Hungry (+50% to Strength ; +25% to Health)
“Perfect. Now I can hopefully fight a bit easier.”
I thought, before creating as many small orbs of venom as I could and rained down a whole storm of projectiles at the beast below. The Chimera looked up towards me with a furious expression, before my venom projectiles rained down upon it and kicked up a sand cloud around it. I landed a couple of seconds later, before quickly creating more venom orbs and firing off more projectiles to where the Chimera should be.
However, before the projectiles connected, the sand cloud suddenly dissipated, before the Chimera appeared beside me. I quickly turned around to face it, luckily dodging the initial attack - being an attempt from it to grab me with its left paw, however immediately afterwards, the snake tail dashed at me, and bit into my body again. I squealed a little bit in pain, falling to the ground.
Before I could get up, the rest of the beast turned to face me as well, before the goat's head bit down on me as well, easily piercing through my skin before tossing me up into the air. Immediately afterwards, the Chimera knocked me away with the goat's horns - my body flying straight into the wall literally across the room - this time, with enough force to absolutely smash it to bits.
I coughed a little bit, spitting out a bit of blood, before looking over at the Chimera with a more nervous expression.
[ HP; 9,053/16,125 ]
“God damnit… so much for healing with Harvester..”
I shed a sweat, as the Chimera dashed towards me - roaring as it did. I shook my head lightly, before leaping to the side and beginning to rapidly slither away, while the Chimera chased after me. It felt like I was going so unbelievably slow at this moment - like the Chimera was just a tail tip away from grabbing a hold of me. I guess that isn’t very surprising considering its insane speed.
I threw a single look back at the pursuing Chimera, before stopping quickly, the Chimera dashing past me, before slowing down and flipping around and dashing towards me again. I remained in place, just waiting for it to get closer and closer, before coiling up my body and propelling myself up high into the air, right as the Chimera dashed past under me. I gazed down at it, before quickly shifting my gaze to its shadow - narrowing my eyes on the shadow.
In an instant, appendages shot up and out of the shadow of the beast, before quickly wrapping around the monster and pulling it down to the ground. The Chimera growled and roared as it struggled to move - the three animal heads looking up at me with bright red eyes.
“Alright - let’s hope this works!”
I fell back to the ground, before dashing at the bound beast. Dodging the snake head's attempts at grasping me, I leapt onto the Chimeras back, before slithering up to its two frontal heads. The Goat head immediately looked at me with a furious glare, before attempting to bite down on me. I dodged out of the way, before gesturing with my tail - causing the shadow appendages binding the beast to quickly grab a hold of the Goat head and pull it back, leaving the two necks of the two heads wide open.
“Perfect!”
I leapt onto the goat's head, before sinking my fangs into it. The Goat head let out a loud, loud scream of pain as I increased my biting force - enough for ‘Harvester’ to activate once more. I easily tore through the neck of the goat head, before quickly wrapping my body around it and squeezing the neck as tightly as I could. The chimera let out a loud screech of pure pain, before slowly ripping and tearing through the shadow appendages binding it.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
I shed a sweat, before quickly beginning to rapidly bite away at the Goats head, tearing through its flesh more and more with each bite, before eventually the beast managed to break through the binds and the lion head quickly attempted to bite down on me, wrapped around the Goats neck.
I quickly unwrapped myself from around the neck, before sinking into the shadows below, as the lion sunk its teeth into the goat head and ripped it off, before tossing it away - roaring loudly afterwards.
I leapt out of the shadow world a moment later, in the center of the room, looking at the beast with pure astonishment and confusion.
“Why did it just rip off one of its heads? Wait… No way - did it do that to avoid my passive poison that I inject with my bites?!”
I shed a sweat.
I had underestimated just how smart this thing was. However, with one less head, surely it would be easier to defeat. I grinned at first, feeling quite good about the fact that this fight seemed to be going in my favour so far - however, my grin didn’t last long as the Chimera was then suddenly surrounded by a deep red mist. I could feel its magical energy suddenly increasing in density, as the eyes of the lion and snake began to shine an even brighter red - before the two heads roared and hissed loud enough to shake the room once more.
I heard the roar and hiss for a few moments, before the sounds blew out of my hearing range - then, a window popped up in front of me.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ Warning ]
Chimera has activated the Individual Skill
[Severance]
Its Physical and Magical properties have increased by 50%
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I just had to jinx it didn’t I…
The Chimera looked at me with a furious deathglare, before roaring towards me, and then suddenly appearing in front of me. Then, in an instant - without giving any room to even react - the beast kicked me back and up into the air, before the lion head bit down onto my body and shook me around, tossing me into the air, before the snake head also bit down onto my body, causing me to cough up blood.
After a couple of seconds of whipping me around, the snake head tossed me into another part of the cylinder wall - before dashing up to me, not giving me any time to react or even recover, and simply stomping onto me with its right paw.
I felt heavy weight being pushed down onto me, as well as wounds just popping open one after the other, with blood just rushing out.
[ HP; 4053/16,125 ]
“Oh this has got to be… some sick… joke..!”
I struggled - however eventually managed to pop my head out from underneath its paw before sinking my teeth into the paw. The lion roared loudly, before kicking me to the side. I rolled across the ground quite heavily, before stopping and slowly picking myself back up.
Had I not bitten down, that thing would’ve crushed me under its paw. This is getting dangerous - I am definitely nowhere near strong enough to take this thing on up close. It will destroy me in an up close confrontation. Something that also had stood out to me is that despite it having an immense amount of Magical Energy, this thing hasn’t used a single magic spell or anything against me - it has only attacked me physically by getting close and then attacking.
Perhaps it can’t use any magic or something and thus relies on close range combat? If so…
My best bet at surviving this is to keep my freaking distance as much as possible and just use ‘Venom Mastery’ to fire off projectiles at it. The Chimera dashed at me once again, attempting to grab me again - however I just barely managed to slide into the shadow below me before leaping out of the shadow behind the Beast and leaping up into the air above it, before flipping around and creating as many venom orbs around me as possible - shooting down a barrage of venom bullets down at the monster.
After the bullets rained down at the creature, I landed back down, before dashing away, creating as much distance between me and it as possible. The beast roared loudly, disrupting the cloud of dust around it in an instant, before locking its eyes onto me immediately.
“Not a scratch? Guess I have to amp up the power…”
I exhaled lightly, before dashing as fast as I could - with the Chimera dashing after me a moment afterwards. I dashed forward for a bit, before quickly leaping back up into the air, right as the Chimera caught up and leapt up after me. I flipped myself around before forming one giant orb of venom in front of me.
“If a barrage of smaller venom bullets aren’t enough to damage it… Then perhaps one large shot will be enough!”
Immediately I fired off a beam of the condensed venom down at the beast, the monster somehow stopping midair, before leaping back and smashing up a large chunk of the floor, throwing it up as a shield. The beam I had fired off easily tore through the chunk it had thrown up as a shield, before slicing off the snake tail off of its body - the snake falling to the ground, squirming around for a bit, before all life disappeared from it.
Now just the lion part of the beast remained.
The beast looked at the snake on the ground, before growling and roaring even louder than before - the entire room shaking enough for the light given off by the chandelier at the top to flicker. I landed back onto the ground a moment later, before feeling shivers run down my spine as an even more intense aura surrounded the lion.
The deep red mist around it had turned even deeper and larger, while its Magical Energy was just spiraling up and out of control - increasing at such a rapid rate, it felt like an army of Red Wyverns had appeared before me just now.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ Warning ]
Large amount of Magical Energy has been detected.
If not subdued in a timely manner, the Magical Energy in the area will cause an Eruption to occur.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An ‘Eruption’? What is that?
Well, whatever it is - it definitely does not sound good…
After the initial warning window, another one appeared in front of me.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ Warning ]
Chimera has increased the potency of the Individual Skill
[Severance]
Its Physical and Magical properties have increased by 100%
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“You’ve got to—!”
The lion then roared loudly, its roar pushing me back a bit, before it vanished and reappeared in the air above me. Then, the beast sent down several thin blades of what appeared to be just air. I quickly leapt to the side, avoiding any fatal damage, however the tip of my tail just barely got clipped and sliced off by one of the blades. It appears that now the thing also has projectiles, so my short-lived advantage of being able to fight while keeping a distance has disappeared.
I immediately dashed away - as the lion landed back down and dashed after me. It caught up to me almost immediately, grabbing me with its teeth before tossing me up into the air and sending even more thin blades of air at me. My eyes widened as I quickly used the shadow I could spot under the chimera to pull up large appendages, just fast enough for them to tank the air blades - shattering as soon as the blades hit them.
“This is not good…!”
I shed a sweat, as the lion leapt up towards me - grabbing a hold of me with its mouth, before flying up and into the chandelier above, grabbing onto it and shaking me around, before tossing me into the ceiling. Then, it leapt off of the chandelier and grabbed me again, dragging me through the ceiling before tossing me back down into the ground.
[ HP; 2,012/16,125 ]
I coughed up more and more blood as my entire body felt like it was falling apart. It felt like my bones had been shattered and that I was leaking blood from every single spot in my body.
The lion looked down at me with shining eyes, before leaping off of the ceiling and down onto me - smashing me underneath its feet. A dust cloud was kicked up as the lion stepped off and pushed through the dust cloud, searching for the snake. However, the snake that it had been fighting was nowhere to be found - despite it clearly smashing it underneath its feet.
For a bit, it was confused, before I leapt out of the shadow below it and sunk my teeth into its front right paw.
[Harvester] has been activated.
The lion roared, before grabbing me with its teeth and tossing me into the farthest away wall. I crashed into the wall pretty heavily, however it was minor damage I sustained.
Wounds have been healed.
“Thank goodness…”
I felt a warm sensation rush through my body as the most fatal wounds around my body closed up and healed.
[ HP; 7,922/16,125 ]
It wasn’t a perfect recovery, but it was just enough for me to not be on death's doorstep. I looked at the lion with a mocking gaze, while the beast simply glared at me and roared loud enough to shake the room once more. The light from the chandelier above flickered even more. Then, the beast sent even more thin blades of air towards me.
I exhaled before coiling up and propelling myself as high into the air as I could - luckily high enough to dodge the air blades. Then, I created as large of a venom orb as I could before firing it off at the chandelier above - snapping the chain holding it up and causing it to fall down. As the light from the chandelier disappeared and the room was enveloped in darkness and shadows, I quickly looked at the lion with a shining glare.
A pair of large hands shot up from the shadows around before grabbing a hold of the lion and lifting it up, before tossing it to the center of the room. The lion landed with ease, shaking its body before looking at me and roaring again.
However, before it could step forward, the chandelier fell onto it and crushed the beast's body underneath it.
The lion let out a loud screech, before it attempted to pull itself out from below the chandelier. I slowly slithered towards the lion, my eyes shining brightly. It worked. The chandelier worked. When I entered the room, I immediately took note of how the chandelier lit up the entire room - but I also had taken note of its weight. It was unusually heavy for a chandelier, being around the same weight as an entire airplane from my previous world.
I had basically thrown an entire jumbo jet onto the thing, which - I think - this thing would not be able to lift off of it. And as I approached closer and closer, observing how the lion struggled to pull itself out from below the chandelier, it appeared that my theory had been correct.
The beast looked at me furiously - opening its mouth to roar. However, I quickly tied large appendages around it from the shadows that were now all over the place. Unlike the weak ones I could create using its shadow, these appendages were larger and much, much stronger - which hopefully meant it wouldn’t be able to break through them easily.
I breathed heavily as I approached the lion closer and closer.
“You really gave me a lot of trouble…”
I stated coldly, before staring down at the beast with a cold expression.
“But in the end, I guess you weren’t all that special.”
I then quickly sunk my teeth into its neck, before wrapping my entire body around it - squeezing as tightly as I could. The lion visibly tried to wiggle and struggle its way out. It tried to break the binds around its muzzle, for what I could only imagine was to let out growls and roars of pain. However, I kept a tight hold on it - increasing the strength of the shadow appendages around it before increasing the amount of squeezing force I was applying with my entire body around its neck.
I bit even harder - my teeth clamping down and through the beast's flesh.
[Harvester] has activated.
“Just…”
“Die….”
“Already!”
I applied as much biting force as I could - tearing through the neck of the beast before beginning to rip out its neck and throat - blood from the lion going absolutely everywhere as it continued to wiggle and struggle. This scene kept on for a bit, before eventually the life from the beast had disappeared and the lion head fell to the ground, its body seizing its struggle and the large density of magical energy coming from it also beginning to slowly decrease.
I unwrapped myself from its neck, before slithering back and falling to the ground, breathing heavily from exhaustion.
“I… I did it…”
I commented to myself in my mind, as my vision grew a bit blurry.
[ Exhaustion has reached 100% ]
You don’t say…
As my vision blurred more and more, a window appeared in front of me. I managed to pull together just enough strength to see what the window contained for me, lifting my head up slightly.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ Urgent Quest +
Attention - an Urgent Quest has appeared
You have uncovered the Tomb of the Chimera. Please descend down into it and slay the beast located at the bottom of it.
- Slay the Chimera [ COMPLETED ]
Reward; New Skill
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ Congratulations +
You have successfully completed the Urgent Quest.
Reward Granted.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rare Skill [Mimic] acquired.
Ah, so that’s the skill I was going to gain after getting through this…
I won’t lie - not as cool sounding as I would have hoped.
As I felt my consciousness fade, a sudden warm feeling rushed through my body and a loud announcement played in my head.
All requirements have been reached.
You have risen to level 64.
Rare Skill [Harvester] has evolved into the Epic Skill [Reaping].
Rare Skill [Erudition] has evolved into the Individual Skill [Enlightened].
You have reached all requirements for evolution.
Commencing evolution from ‘Greater Serpentine’ to ‘Dark Snake’ immediately.
