The Systemic Lands
Chapter 408: 4th Floor (2) – A Big Cat

I did my usual pack tossing aside right after I entered the boss room and the door shut. No need to risk my supplies during the fight and encumber myself. The red-light walls around the boss spawner rose up and I got mentally ready.

Acid Shot. Acid Shot. Opening with my standard and then immediately moving, the boss monster dodged and moved quickly as well. It was a large silver cat. About the size of a small car, or a tiger on some serious steroids.

It was a quick monster unlike the previous ones, and I frowned a bit. Well, it didn’t really matter how quick it was. If it got close to attack, I would end it. That was when it began breathing blue flames. I easily dodged, but the flames stuck around for a bit, making it hard to plot out my path. Sᴇaʀᴄh the n0vᴇl(ꜰ)ire.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

The Super Cat kept its distance while breathing out flames near constantly, not letting itself get close enough to be attacked. The battle quickly turned into one of movement. The Super Cat would keep trying to flank me and breathe out flames to hem me in and roast me. I kept moving to not get hemmed in while trying to close on the Super Cat.

This back and forth lasted a minute and then two. I made sure to stay away from my supplies so they didn’t get burnt up in that corner of the room. That hampered my movement options even more. This was where having a lot of spam attacks would have come in useful. Against the Power Prism of the last floor, spam attacks would have been the downfall of facing a monster that could absorb weaker skills, but here they would have been incredibly useful.

After enough moving around and dodging, I felt I had a good grasp of the Super Cat’s movement and had worked out the energy I would be spending ahead of time. I needed to keep enough in reserve for a couple emergency Air Bursts or a follow up Acid Shot against this kind of monster.

Air Burst.Air Burst. I quickly moved to one side of the blue flames and then flanked the Super Cat hard. It tried to twist and leap back, but I wasn’t aiming to catch up with it completely. I just wanted to force it towards a corner.

What was annoying was the constant flames it belched without end. That was cheating in my mind. Have some kind of energy limit or something? Acid Shot x10. I spread my attacks out there was no way to dodge.

The Super Cat proved me wrong, as it finally stopped belching flames, leapt up to the ceiling and then right at me. I smiled a bit at the mistake this monster had made. I wanted it to come towards me and stop shooting those annoying flames out of its mouth.

Acid Shot x2. Force Wave. Air Burst. I hit the boss monster with an annihilation attack at point blank range, while retreating backwards. The head of the monster was completely vaporized. It appeared that defense was not its greatest strength. It had been fast, but with my movement skill and my high Body stat, I had been able to keep up and react in time.

The monster crumbled to dust. I tossed the point crystal in my back and made my way to the elevator. Time for the fifth floor.

I took the elevator up to the fifth floor and took another break. I had glanced out the one way barrier and saw that the floor was completely open. That was not a good sign. Since it was the fifth floor, would there be some kind of sub-boss. Like multiple level 5 monsters? Maybe one of each from the previous floors?

That would not be fun in the slightest. While I took my time to rest, I thought about how I would handle such a situation. The one-way exit was facing the Southeast corner of the floor, I didn’t have a full picture of it. But a combined boss battle wouldn’t be surprising.

While the last fight wasn’t that hard, I wanted to get myself mentally ready for whatever fresh hell the fifth floor was. After an hour or so break to get back all my energy, I stretched a bit and put on my packs, making sure they were secured.

I exited the room and the lighting turned to red. With the only edges being the outer wall and then boss room at the center with 12 monster spawners, the entire floor was incredibly dark in a way the previous floors had not been.

The safe room was not exactly in the Southeast corner, but it was close enough. The boss room appeared to be in the center with monster spawners adjacent to it and the elevator room to the North. No boss door.

Moving around my safe room and keeping near the wall, I saw the golden key rod in the Northwest corner of the open floor. I frowned at this. It was far too open, and I scanned the floor itself. I couldn’t spot anything, but I noted the level 4 cat golems were avoiding certain places on the floor.

Acid Shot x5. I aimed at various places on the floor and one portion of the floor suddenly gave away right next to the safe room. I rushed over and looked down in it. There were spikes and between those narrow spikes were saws silently spinning around.

The illusion quickly reformed, and I quickly looked for any way to spot the difference. This illusion was clearly better than the one that was used for the walls. I tapped it with my toe and it instantly disappeared. Also, a lot more fragile.

The previous illusions hadn’t disappeared when I had gone through them. They just looked like a wall on the other side as well and kept their presence. The monster cats had finally reached me. Acid Shot. They leapt away, of course. Staying at a distance they began to shoot blue fireballs at me. I quickly set off running to the North.

Any second, I was ready for my foot not to touch the ground, then I would use an Air Burst to get over the pit trap. The darkness was quite intense, but thankfully my Percept stat was strong enough to make things out in the gloom.

I was about halfway to the golden rod, when the floor disappeared under my foot. Air Burst. I went up and over the pit trap and landed on the other side. I kept moving. Another! Air Burst. Over the hole again. That really was scary.

The floor just disappearing like that would stress anyone out. The floor disappeared a third time. Air Burst just as I came to land on the next portion of the floor, it disappeared as well. Air Burst. Air Burst. I used the skill twice in a bit of a panic. Sighing in relief when the next portion of the floor actually existed. I carefully moved towards the golden rod, noting the monster cats running on a path to the East.

That was annoying how they knew where the traps were. I tapped each foot on the floor, before quickly using my next foot. The illusions appeared back in place after ten seconds unlike the other traps with took a hundred seconds to reactivate.

Another pit trap. I checked to the West and found a path next to the tower wall and was then force to go East. The monster cats were racing around, and I made sure to pay attention to the path they took. A weird back and forth pattern.

At least they couldn’t run or leap over the pit traps. If that had been the case, I would have cried. Also, it would have put me in a tough spot. While I could run past them to some extent, they were quick enough to retreat and use ranged fireballs to put me in a tight spot. The monster cats came to a stop and began to bombard me as I grabbed the golden key rod.

I quickly ran to the South. Air Burst. Air Burst. I went over the double pit trap, putting the monster cats behind me now. I began to follow the path they had taken and quickly left the area near the golden key rod with the double layer of pit traps.

Anyone without the ability to move in mid-air and recover would have died to these traps. Another confirmation that this tower was not a simple or low level area in the slightest. The traps were hell, the persistent monsters were incredibly annoying and pressuring, and the boss monsters tricky.

Still, there was a smile on my face as I raced towards the boss room. I had to save myself from another two pit traps, but that was only 10 uses of Air Burst so far or 8,000 energy. One Acid Shot had been 320 energy, which left me with enough for two more Air Bursts.

But I had come to realize the layout of the pits as I circled the boss room. They aligned with the tunnel units. That allowed me to rush near the edge, check the next three steps, then rush to the next edge, while still keeping ahead of the monster cats.

It was a good thing I did realize this, since there was a 3 by 3 wide pit to the side of the boss door. I smiled as I put in the key and the lighting changed. I went to the side and sat at the edge of the pit looking down and inspecting the pit trap.

I was hoping for a way to spot the energy and get a visual clue, but that appeared not be the case. The circular saw blades were still spinning quietly below. Acid Shot. That didn’t do anything to the blades. I hadn’t expected it to, but I had been a bit hopeful.

It would have been nice to wreck this tower, but I was still too weak for that. I would need another couple of levels in my skills before I could have a chance. Hard to say, but probably fully upgraded level 6 at the least if I had to guess. My skills were at level 4 at the moment.

Well, it was time to face the boss. My energy had come back and putting things off would get me nowhere. I entered the fifth floor boss room, and quickly put my packs in a corner and waited for the boss spawner walls to go away.

Acid Shot. Acid Shot. The they were blocked on a shield. It was a humanoid golem. The shield clearly had some kind of protection, since my attacks did little damage. The monster was about one and a half times my height, so quite big.

It had a tower shield and a hammer. It swung out, and I quickly retreated back. It then rushed at me, keeping its shield touching the floor. I dodged to the side. Acid Shot x2. It spun its shield quickly and took the attacks on it and rushed at me again.

This was not going to be an easy fight unfortunately.

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