Chapter 138: The Deadly Mist Cavern (Part 5)

Rejoicing aside, the boss still had to be defeated.

Before entering the third floor, a purification spell had to be cast first.

Just like the Dark Light Sea Tomb, the density of black particles in the air of the third floor increased dramatically. Without spells to filter and purify them, even the Hero System could not completely resist them. Although one wouldn't be corrupted to death and turned into a monster, very troublesome negative statuses would still occur.

Upon stepping into the third floor, Zhao Tianhe directly switched his perception to a mode dominated by touch and hearing.

Because the visibility was simply too low; no matter what kind of super vision, Byakugan, or Sharingan one possessed, it was impossible to see beyond fifty meters.

"No monsters?" However, through the detection feedback of his powerful hearing, Zhao Tianhe was surprised to find that within a radius of one kilometer, there wasn't a single monster!

"This is going to be troublesome." Saidah stroked his chin and said, "This type of boss is the hardest to deal with."

"Why?" Tian Xie asked.

"Haha! That's naturally because that monster—" Molle said with a smug expression, but before he could finish his sentence, he spat out a mouthful of black blood!

"Immediately reinforce the protective spells! Multiple layers of protection are required to withstand this! The boss has elementalized! It has merged with the entire floor of the dungeon and become the Dead Mist Elemental Lord!" Saidah applied multiple barriers around Li Mei with a solemn expression.

Li Mei was the weakest among those present, so she naturally had to be taken care of first.

The group scattered, moving away from Molle, who had taken the hit.

At this moment, Molle had already collapsed to the ground in convulsions, with black mist spewing from his facial orifices...

However, judging by Saidah's calm expression, this guy probably wasn't going to die.

Without hesitation, Zhao Tianhe began frantically casting defensive spells on himself. With his physique, if he were to get hit like Molle, it would undoubtedly be certain death!

*My life has only just begun!* Zhao Tianhe took a deep breath, unprecedented passion and fighting spirit welling up on his face!

Come to think of it, Saidah must have been guarding against a surprise attack from this kind of elemental boss right from the start.

After all, among everyone present, only Molle had a single purification curse on him and nothing else in terms of protective spells. As long as the boss wasn't lacking in intelligence, it would definitely target him first.

How could the boss possibly know that this guy was undying?

"Gather on me! I'll create a safe zone!" Saidah shouted, and octagonal light-cyan energy bodies emerged around him.

Wherever the light-cyan energy bodies passed, all the surrounding black particles were adsorbed and expelled, while clean air was blown back toward Saidah.

"Hm, just a simple application of a tier-three wind-type barrier? But the range is so huge; it must be harder to control than a tier-six or tier-seven barrier, right?" Li Mei felt immense admiration as she watched Saidah's methods.

In the blink of an eye, thousands of octagonal energy bodies rushed out, continuously adsorbing black ash to generate clean air, ultimately forming a huge hemispherical barrier shield that protected everyone inside.

Except for Molle.

At this moment, Molle was buried underneath a huge humanoid mass composed of black ash.

The lower half of the giant humanoid was a large, continuously gathering pool of black ash, while only the upper body was condensed more clearly—a black ash monster with three heads.

The heads made of black ash had no faces, but the middle head possessed a large mouth whose contours were barely discernible.

Its mouth split all the way to its ears, and the sharp teeth within were particularly distinct, even gleaming with a metallic luster.

Suddenly, all three heads opened their mouths, leaning back as if charging up, and then fiercely sprayed three bucket-wide black beams toward the protective shield!

Of course, that was merely high-pressure ejected black ash rather than a beam weapon.

However, the terrifying immense force contained within still caused ripples to spread across the protective shield.

"I can take this fellow down, but that would be meaningless," Saidah said with a solemn expression. "I will only maintain the defensive barrier; the offense is up to you."

"Then, does this fellow have any weaknesses?" Artoria asked.

"Your sword will be very effective against it. This is a monster born of darkness," Saidah replied.

Hearing this, Tian Xie nearby transformed into a giant and prepared to charge out!

Saidah opened a passage for him, and Tian Xie leaped straight through.

Ralph, standing nearby, covered his forehead and sighed.

The next second, Tian Xie was blasted by a gust of black ash, pinned flat against the protective shield in a sprawling position, completely unable to move.

Although Tian Xie's resistance to dark-attribute attacks was ridiculously high, this monster didn't only rely on dark-attribute corruption, did it?

As the saying goes, brute force creates miracles. Purely in terms of strength, its stats were at least one hundred and twenty; Tian Xie rushing out there was practically delivering himself on a silver platter.

Saidah used the barrier to isolate the black ash and pulled Tian Xie back inside.

"See that? This monster is very strong. Its first weakness is that light-type spells can neutralize it and deal effective damage; the second is that it should have a core. As long as you smash its core, you can kill it," Saidah explained. "Additionally, although it can use the black ash of the entire third floor as a weapon, there is a limit to the total amount of power it can wield, otherwise even I wouldn't be able to block it."

Saidah's tone was very much like an examiner posing a question, and next came the time for Zhao Tianhe and the others to provide the answer.

"Let's go together." Zhao Tianhe began casting defensive spells on himself. "Is this the only way? Overwhelm it in terms of total volume or withstand its attacks, and then find its core."

"The probability of the core being located within its aggregate body is the highest," Zelgadis said, while a huge ball of light about five meters in diameter emerged in front of him—this was the tier-seven magic, Holy Light Burst Bomb.

Although this thing theoretically would cause a massive explosion, if thrown out to cancel out the boss's high-pressure black ash, it would only be continuously depleted rather than detonating.

"I'll clear the path," Zelgadis said.

"We charge." Li Mei nodded. Faint glows were now appearing on her body; upon closer inspection, one would find that these glows were composed of countless tiny polygonal light screens.

*Armor-type barrier? Good creativity, but maintaining such a complex barrier consumes mental energy severely. Given her level, five minutes is probably her limit, right?* Saidah nodded inwardly at the sight.

"Open in three seconds," Zelgadis said, aiming the sphere of light at the black humanoid outside and pressing it against the inner side of the barrier.

Zhao Tianhe began casting defensive spells on Artoria.

*Why is he mixing a bunch of tier-one spells with high-tier spells?* Observing Zhao Tianhe's actions, Saidah and Ralph had always been somewhat puzzled, because both grand mages could sense the tier of the spells he cast, but they were unaware of Zhao Tianhe's Super-Magic Premonition skill.

Barrier: Open.

The Holy Light Burst Bomb cleared the path first, pushing the high-pressure black ash back, while Ralph also released hundreds of holy light swords to guard their flanks for immediate support.

After all, this was just an insignificant test; how could they possibly let them actually perish?

Tian Xie and Artoria, as frontline combatants, naturally took the lead and ran the fastest, with Li Mei and Zhao Tianhe following closely behind.

And because Zhao Tianhe's strength stat was too low, he wasn't even running as fast as Li Mei...

The advancement speed of the Holy Light Burst Bomb was extremely fast, but its shrinking speed was also very rapid. As it approached within ten meters of the boss, it had already been neutralized down to a diameter of less than one meter and was on the verge of dissipating completely.

However, this was already enough. The moment the Holy Light Burst Bomb completely vanished, Artoria had also reached a distance of less than fifty meters from the boss.

Artoria's figure paused as she braced herself, holding her sword in both hands with the tip aimed directly ahead.

Ahead, the three streams of high-pressure black mist struck once more.

Tian Xie lunged forward, using his own body to shield Artoria.

The next instant, Artoria vanished, the ground shattered, and a ray of light cleaved through the mist-filled sky!

Artoria's sword plunged straight into the exact center of the black ash humanoid's body.

Waves of light surged forth from the black ash body. The entire side facing Artoria caved inward with the Caliburn sword at the center, a massive shockwave brewing within before exploding violently!

The shattering body caused the black ash to splatter everywhere, its destructive power no less than the high-pressure black mist it had spewed.

Artoria burst forth with accelerated strength, retreating backward and instantly arriving by Zhao Tianhe's side, shoving something she was holding into his hands.

Zhao Tianhe instinctively caught the object and dropped it to the ground—it turned out Artoria had conveniently rescued Molle along the way.

"Blech, blech, blech~~" Molle was still retching non-stop, which explained why Zhao Tianhe had dropped him without hesitation.

"The core didn't appear! Fall back!" Zelgadis shouted, simultaneously releasing a large number of light-type spells for cover.

Ahead, the black ash humanoid re-gathered and began spraying high-pressure black mist once again.

Artoria directly unleashed her mana burst, grabbing Zhao Tianhe and Li Mei as she dashed back, because the black mist on both sides was already beginning to roll backward, filling the path that had just been cleared by the Holy Light Burst Bomb.

Thanks to Ralph's light swords maintaining the space temporarily, the passage hadn't been filled instantly.

The boss's application of environmental domain control was simply terrifying!

Trapped in such an environment, everyone felt from the bottom of their hearts that there was nowhere to hide and nowhere to escape!

Tian Xie covered the rear, and out of a sense of righteousness, Zhao Tianhe grabbed Molle's hand and dragged him back.

The barrier closed, and everyone let out a long breath of relief. Molle had nothing left to vomit and could only continue dry-heaving.

"Let's do it again," Zelgadis said.

"Wait!" Zhao Tianhe suddenly asked, "What does that core look like? What are its size and shape?"

"It has no fixed shape, but its volume is roughly equivalent to a solid sphere of this size," Saidah gestured and said, "Any clues?"

"Yes." Zhao Tianhe nodded. He projected a sword in his hand—a simple weapon with no crossguard, featuring only a rough hilt wrapped in cloth.

The shape of this sword was very unpretentious, and the entire blade flickered in and out of existence like an illusion, with only a layer of crystalline light forming the contour of the blade.

Even more bizarrely, looking at Zhao Tianhe's shadow on the ground, the sword was completely absent from his hands.

Although he didn't know what kind of sword this was, judging from the elemental fluctuations it emitted, it should be a treasured blade with light-attribute damage capabilities, much like Caliburn.

Zhao Tianhe gripped the sword with both hands, turned around, and forcefully stabbed it downward.

Molle, who was still dry-heaving, froze for a moment, and then gushed out a large mouthful of fresh blood!

Zhao Tianhe had actually stabbed a sword straight into his back!