After everyone arrived at the cave, they entered and walked through the passage for fifty meters before arriving at an icy cavern.
At the center was a ten-meter-tall harpy with her frosty wings curled up around her.
The moment they exited the passage and entered the cavern, Frostfeather Harpy woke up and screeched sharply as ice pillars produced around her, and she flew up.
“You know the plan. This will be our quickest boss fight,” Almond grinned. “Let’s start.”
Viperfiend, Alfred, and Almond went first, attracting her attention.
Viperfiend and Alfred unleashed their long-range skill attacks while Almond waited as he took a potion at far left, his eyes on the monster.
Natalia and Lily also took up a crossbow and bow, respectively, shooting arrows.
Lily also used her newly acquired class skill during this—Phantom Moon’s Edge.
[Phantom Moon’s Edge]:
-Effect 1: Grants 100% penetration boost and 50% damage boost to any attack. 50 Mana cost.
-Effect 2: Disintegrate a weapon-type item and covert its entire potential into a single highly penetrative projectile attack of any shape you desire. 100 Mana cost. The higher the Mana consumption when using this, the higher the potential boost.
Lily fired two arrows instead of one, both being produced from the magic quiver. She used both effects of her new skills, enhancing one arrow with 1st effect and using 2nd effect on the second arrow as it disintegrated and shaped into a vertical slash of hazy white light, slicing off Harpy’s right wing.
Before her wing was sliced off, Harpy had attacked Alfred and Viperfiend with Ice Shards, but that was the only attack she could make before everyone’s attacks struck her…including Almond’s ultimate attack.
Spirit Explosions x 20!
Ten in front of her.
Ten behind her.
*BOOOOOOOOOM!*
The stacked explosions of 20 Spirits were destructive, to say the least, not to mention that seven of them burst out in special effects!
The harpy was immediately frozen and attacked with unique ice-type attacks and poison attacks as Almond had used ten spirits of monsters from White Polan’s lair and the other ten from Frostbite Cliffs area!
“This is crazy,” Natalia muttered. “Isn’t that too op, Lily?”
“It is,” Lily nodded. “It doesn’t cost Mana, so he can stack 100 Spirits…Imagine the damage from those.”
“Fuck…”
[Congratulations on defeating the hidden boss, Frostfeather Harpy. Everyone in the party is rewarded 10,000 gold coins and one random skill generation, which you can access in your status. Good luck.]
The battle was over, and everyone reached the peak of level 10.
Their level of progress stopped at 10[99%]. The only way to reach level 11 would be when they entered the 2nd Floor of the Labyrinth and killed their first level 11 monster.
“No rare drops. But we got nice materials,” Almond said as he looked at the drops.
“Money,” Natalia grinned. Thinking of something, she blinked and asked Almond, “Wait, you don’t want to craft items with materials, right?”
“Nah, I don’t need it because I have a factory,” Almond laughed. “We’ll sell them.”
“Yey! The materials sell for a good price while commissioning to craft an item will instead cost us,” Natalia was happy with the decision. “And Lily doesn’t want gold coins from them, so it’s only for us to split.”
“Really?” Almond turned to Lily.
“Yep. You two keep the gold coins from selling things. I’m getting a big salary on gold coins from the guild on top of 50% of whatever I’ll earn myself from their Dungeons.”
Since Dungeon Doors randomly appeared all over the world, their ownership became territorial. Big guilds had larger territories under their name, so they had access to more dungeons.
GAA and Earth Union had the highest territory as they were a kind of new joint government of the world, so they had access to a lot of dungeons whose access they provided to smaller guilds and their own Adventurers.
“That’s a nice deal, but I guess you’ll become an Adventurer celebrity with that and all the stuff that comes with it,” Almond wryly smiled.
“Yeah, we’ll have to participate in some events and competitions and other stuff you see in media, but…” Lily shrugged before she put her arms around his shoulder and grinned, “I want you in my life from now on, so well, I am happy.”
“So you were waiting for someone to make your life interesting, eh?” Almond smiled as his hands went around her waist, but both of them suddenly remembered something and glanced at Natalia.
Natalia clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes. “Fine, you can kiss this time.”
…
The party sat down in the cavern, ready to unveil their most important reward.
Random Skill Generation!
At the end of their profile status was a new tab [Random Skill Generation (D to A)].
“Time to use my good luck spell. Zula, Arrsaka, Voodoo, Zing, Bing, Bong,” Natalia spluttered gibberish with her eyes rolling upward, causing Almond and Lily to be speechless.
“Come to me, A-rank skill!” Natalia pressed the tab as a notification rang.
“What did you get?” Lily asked.
“That was some advanced spell, for sure. It might have worked,” Almond snickered.
Natalia appeared blank as she read the notification. Silence ensured as Lily and Almond looked at each other after not getting any response for two seconds.
“Wh-“
Almond was interrupted by Natalia’s shriek as she raised her arms with an excited expression. “Let’s fucking go! Call me Divine Witch Natalia from now on!”
“It’s just an A-rank skill,” Almond wryly smiled.
“Well, you’re wrong,” Natalia’s smile had stretched from ear to ear as she shared the notification.
[Congratulations. You have triggered a lucky break, acquiring an S-rank skill: Arcane Bastion from the Random Skill Generation.]
“S-rank?” Lily was taken aback.
Almond was dumbfounded, “Holy shit, Divine Witch Natalia, alright.”
“What does it do?” Lily curiously asked.
Natalia shared the skill status with a grin, “It’s awesome!”
[Arcane Bastion]
-Skill rank: S
-Effect: Conjures a tower shield in front of you, capable of absorbing damage and generating Bastion Aura based on damage it absorbed.
—Bastion Aura: You can use Bastion aura to boost an attack or heal. Bastion Aura limit is based on the amount of Mana consumed when using the skill.
-Cost: 100 Mana.
“That’s truly a good skill,” Almond raised his eyebrows. “Suppose you consume 300 Mana on this skill to defend against a powerful attack, storing a high amount of Bastion Aura and then use your remaining 100 Mana to use Action Mirage skill, copying an attack and boosting it with Bastion Aura to increase its power.”
“Hoho, nice idea. This skill can come in clutch in that style,” Natalia grinned.
“Lucky,” Lily wryly smiled. “Let’s see what do we get, Almond.”
“I ain’t using my spell for you two,” Natalia snorted.
“Yeah, yeah,” Almond rolled his eyes.
Pressing on the button with his thought, the tab [Random Skill Generation] disappeared and a notification rang.
[Congratulations. You have acquired a B-rank skill: Lightning Lash.]
[Lightning Lash]
-Skill rank: B
-Effect:
—> Lashes at an enemy within 10 meters of yourself with a lightning whip from either of your hands. Has a chance to shock the target if the target takes damage from the skill properly.
Shock ailment was different from paralyzing. Shock could weaken the enemy, slowing down their action and responses. Lightning-attributed attacks could also cause paralyzing, but this skill couldn’t do it given how it was structured according to the effect.
‘Well, not bad. Once I hit 50 in Focus and Perception, I might be able to improve it,’ Almond truly couldn’t wait to explore the world of magic and learn how the skills were created.