Whoosh!
Just as Valyr was in the midst of his short monologue, a wave of crimson fireballs were sent his way. With the knowledge of the fireballs’ trajectory, Valyr hastily moved to the side, letting the fireballs pass him as he closed the gap between him and the goblins.𝑜𝒱𝓵xt.𝒞𝑶𝓜
Seeing the speed at which Valyr closed the gap between them, Eir and the three remaining goblins hastily cast their fireballs at him, shooting them one by one in a bid to have one of them land on his body. Unfortunately, none of the fireballs landed, allowing Valyr to stand in front of the goblins, coming face to face with the fireballs in the midst of casting.
‘So, with one of the four goblins down, that means Eir can revive three more times before my fourth and final beating kills him for good.’ Gazing at the three small goblins surrounding Eir, thinking of the ideal path to take in order to kill them in one swift motion, Valyr could not help but take a few steps back as a thought surfaced in his mind regarding the mechanic he was currently facing.
Dodging all of the fireballs shot at him with ease, Valyr’s gaze focused on the three small goblins for a short while before it shifted to focus on Eir. Then, while the four were occupied in preparing their next wave of fireballs, he went ahead and used [Elusive Dash], swiftly narrowing the gap between him and Eir.
As Valyr appeared behind Eir’s back thanks to the skill, the latter was forced to turn around and cast a quick fireball, fully knowing that any attack Valyr made from where he was would undoubtedly land on his body. Though Valyr was somewhat caught off guard by the sudden fireball heading his way, he was still able to swerve around it at the very last second, charging forward before thrusting his spear directly at Eir’s head.
“[Strong Pierce]!”
Bang!
‘-1254!!!’
Unsurprisingly, the merciless attack Valyr sent out caused Eir’s head to explode from the sheer strength behind it, leaving the three small goblins in a temporary state of shock as their leader’s headless body fell to the ground with a thud sometime later.
While retracting his spear, Valyr could not help but let out a light whistle, recalling the deep red value that hovered above Eir’s body after he had dealt a killing blow to the goblin. However, even though he was impressed with the damage he had dealt, he still knew that there were still the three small goblins he had to kill, using their stupor to his advantage as he swiftly attacked them in their vital areas.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Before the three goblins could even react to the attacks, all of them quickly fell to the ground, their bodies becoming as lifeless as they were earlier. Looking at the headless corpse of Eir before panning his gaze towards the small goblins, he then distanced himself from the group as he recalled the thought that had surfaced in his mind earlier.
“Though the mechanic forces the player to kill the boss multiple times no matter what most of the time, there are some instances wherein killing the boss first before the minions would render that mechanic useless,” he muttered to himself, waiting to see if this mini-boss before him fell into the former or the latter category. “After all, the whole mechanic revolves around the minions acting as vessels for extra lives.”
After waiting for a couple minutes, Valyr noticed that none of the corpses showed any signs of reanimation whatsoever, deciding to come closer to the corpses and make sure that all of them were truly dead. Though, just as he was about to do so, the door that led to the next room started to creak open, prompting him to flinch as he cocked his head towards the origin of the noise, only to let out an inward sigh of relief soon after.
Seeing that the path leading to the next room was available for him to take, Valyr instantly discarded his earlier thoughts of taking a closer look at the goblins, with the opened door being sufficient proof that the goblins were truly and utterly dead.
However, after thoughts of the Dungeon Key Fragment surfaced in his mind once more, he decided to head to the corpses nevertheless, checking them one more time to see if the fragment would only appear if they were dead.
“Nope. No fragments.” With no Dungeon Key Fragment to be found in any of the corpses even after double checking, Valyr could not help but be inclined to believe his earlier conclusion that rooms with only normal monsters in it had a Dungeon Key Fragment.
With that thought in mind, he took one last glance at the lifeless corpses of Eir and the four small goblins accompanying him before proceeding through the door, thinking that the mini-boss was quite an affable being from the interaction before their fight. If not for the fact that they were in a dungeon setting, he would have probably become close acquaintances with Eir.
Nevertheless, with the goblin as dead as it could be, Valyr discarded all of those thoughts as he eventually arrived at the next room, which, at first glance, seemed to serve a similar purpose to the room he had initially appeared in.
“Is this room made for respite?” Valyr wondered, shifting his gaze towards the door located a dozen meters away from him. Deciding to use the opportunity given to him to take a brief respite, he went ahead and sat down on the floor, grabbing a flask of water and a bit of the rations he had packed in his bag.
Though, just as he had taken a bite of the rations he brought out, a disembodied voice started to resound throughout the room, causing him to stop as he listened to the words spoken by the voice.
“I congratulate you for being able to reach this far, human,” the voice said. “Though your efforts are admirable, you are not the one destined to receive the true treasure of the dungeon.”
“The true treasure of the dungeon?” Hearing this phrase, Valyr could not help but slightly tilt his head, mulling over what it was supposed to mean. However, his thought process was swiftly interrupted as the voice resounded throughout the room once more.
“Nevertheless, since you’ve made it this far, I must give you a reward at the very least,” the voice continued. “However, I shall only give it to you on the condition that you must not speak of the creature you’ve faced earlier to anyone outside the dungeon. Not even the destined one.”
“If you abide by this condition, your laudable efforts shall be rewarded.”
As he heard the voice’s words, Valyr pondered over the condition that had been given to him. “I guess this is the dungeon’s binding oath. With that in mind, is the voice telling me not to speak about Eir to anyone?”
Pondering over the condition for a bit more, he noticed that Tristan, Damian, and Alfaera had not mentioned the mini-bosses in any way while the four of them were making their way to the dungeon. At most, all they told him was the final boss, an incredibly vague description of the final boss at that.
With that in mind, he was inclined to think that the three had accepted the condition he was being given at the moment. Though there seemed to be no disadvantage to accepting the condition, Valyr decided to ask to make sure.
“What happens if I decline?”
“You shall be sent back to where you originally come from,” replied the voice, slightly surprising Valyr as he did not expect the voice to respond. Nevertheless, the voice’s response was more than enough for him to come to a decision. Aside from the fact that he didn’t have anything to lose from accepting…
He had a quest to complete.
“Alright. I accept your condition.”
“You’ve made a fine choice.”
Whoosh!