NOVEL NEXT Chapter 112 - Fire Specter
A bright red-white glow overwhelmed everything else down the passage in the boss room. He stepped forward slowly, approaching the end of the passage, ready to turn and flee in an instant if the boss moved. The closer he got, the more things came into focus.
The room seemed to have reddish-brown walls and floor, and the boss… was something between a specter and a man. It stood some two and a half yards tall, floating just above the ground. Its outline was indistinct, but clearly there were two legs, two arms, a torso and a head. Heat haze warped the light at the edges, flickering and waving.
The heat was… Well, it was hot.
But the Smith had been tested in dragon-fire.
He backed off again to get his enchantments out of the heat, and sat down on the staircase to think about how to handle this.
He'd fought two kinds of specters so far: ice specters in the snowy passage, and light specters on the previous floor. Both times, the monsters had been impervious to physical damage. He simply could not strike them with his hammers.
Not good for a Smith whose only means of attack was [Technique: Hammer Strike].
What had worked in the past was magic. The first time, his un-enchanted Red Iron War Hammer had done something to the ice specter in the snowy passage.
But the effect had been almost insignificant.
No, it was when he had returned with his hammer enchanted with [Heated Blade] that he had started to do damage.
Sweat broke out on the Smith's brow.
And then, just now, with the light specters, he had used his Dark War Hammer, saturated with nox essence and enchanted with [Blind].
The Enchanter's jaw clenched, and his right arm trembled.
So, for a fire specter…
James recalled his fight with the dragon. His desperation, and his bad—but lifesaving—decision to use his Ice War Hammer…
He noticed that he was hyperventilating, and he forced himself to stop thinking. He pulled some more meat out of his bag, ate to settle his stomach, and then decided he might as well fully take stock.
He was now out of serpent meat; what he had just eaten was the last of it.
All he had was the Glimmering Tortoise meat. Maybe three days' worth at best.
James put the meat away and put on his cooling strips and changed into his Fire Armor.
On the defensive side, he knew exactly what to do. His Fire Armor was tested in dragon-fire. He couldn't imagine this fire specter being more intense than that. On top of which, he was a Smith. His [Heat Resistance] Skill had grown by leaps and bounds in this Dungeon. It was currently level seven. And he had his cooling strips, and plenty of experience using them.
He could handle the heat.
Armored up, he paused, and then reached into his magic bag and withdrew a war hammer.
[Appraisal]: Blue Iron War Hammer, Quality: Very Low, Durability: 15/15, Enchantment: Frostbite (10)
Not his Ice War Hammer. No, this war hammer was essence-free and enchanted to a sane level.
If he lost his left hand, he was done for. Not just as a Smith, but everything.
In his right hand he bore his Red Iron Round Shield, enchanted with [Reflect].
All that was left was to press forward.
The Smith, the Enchanter, the son of two Brawlers strode forth to battle.
The heat was barely noticeable as he crossed the threshold into the boss room. The specter turned to face him with a quickness, but James was already in range and striking.
[Hammer Strike]
[Frostbite]
With a soft fwoosh, the specter recoiled from the magic even as the hammer strike passed harmlessly through the flames that made up its body.
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James narrowed his eyes. It worked. He had done some damage.
And his hand wasn't freezing, either.
The fire specter flared in intensity, though not so bright as the light of the previous floor, and a wave of heat rolled over James, lasting a moment before he activated his cooling strips and brought his temperature back down.
He swung his hammer again, [Frostbite]. And again, the fire specter recoiled.
It was eerily silent. It retreated, covering nearly ten yards in the blink of an eye as the flame making up its body flickered all at once, and it shot a fireball at the Smith.
Fwoom!
Ping!
The Smith caught it on his shield, and it was reflected back, enlarged and faster than it had arrived.
It struck the fire specter—
BOOM!
—and exploded, the noise and heat and air pressure crashing over James like a wave. He withstood it, but it overwhelmed his vision, and in that time—
Fwoosh
Behind him! He turned, swinging his hammer, striking the fire specter at the same time it raised its arms towards him.
Heat pressed down on him, and his vision wavered. The heat haze was so intense it was hard to see anything beyond the glow in front of him, as though he was right up against his forge, peering in.
He pushed more magic power into his cooling strips, and swept his hammer back and forth through the fire specter's form.
In previous fights with specters, a single blow had been enough to kill them, once he was using the right hammer and enchantment. But this was to be expected. This was a boss specter. Of course it would be tougher.
The specter retreated, seeing its heat wave had had little effect on the armored adventurer, and raised its arms again. James readied his shield for another fireball, but instead, half a dozen smaller fireballs winked into existence all around him.
He couldn't block them all with his shield!
Before he could react, they all exploded.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-pingBOOM!
The heat and light and sound, James could handle. The consecutive impacts knocking him about in his armor, beating him like a drum—that hurt.
But the son of two Brawlers grit his teeth, and pursued the retreating fire specter.
Its glow had diminished, by this point. It was hard to tell by how much, but he was doing damage.
He could do this.
He could do this without his cursed Ice War Hammer.
He was going to survive this damn Dungeon!
Smith Class Skill [Stubbornness] has reached level 8.
He pursued, chasing the fire specter around. It no longer flickered away as rapidly, merely floating away from him as he repeatedly swept his hammer through its body. Nor did it produce any more fireballs. Instead, it merely raised its arms and poured its magic into producing more heat.
James' eyes hurt.
His cooling strips were running at max already.
Smith Class Skill [Heat Resistance] has reached level 8.
He continued to strike at the fire specter. Its glow was significantly dimmer now.
Enchanter Class Skill [Persistence] has reached level 8.
But still the heat continued.
The rest of the room was dark after staring into the glow for so long. It was if the rest of the room didn't even exist. James' whole world narrowed down to the fire specter in front of him, strike after strike, as his mana continued to pour into his cooling strips and his hammer.
It was a matter of capacity, at this point: whose mana would give out first? The fire specter, or James?
He grit his teeth and pushed. Forced his body into motion. Ignored the heat. Around and around he chased the dwindling, shrinking fire specter. And eventually, when it was down to just a fading flame—
It flickered, and the flame coalesced into a Fire Jewel, and fell to the ground.
The fight was won.
Enchanter Class has reached level 13.
Smith Class has reached level 13.
Smith Class Skill [Tough] has been acquired.
The heat remained, and the Smith's mana was low, very low, but he had won.
He kept the cooling strips running and stood a moment, panting for breath, as he let his eyes adjust to the now dim light of the boss room. After several minutes, he could see. The room was a simple cube, perhaps fifty yards on each side, lit by fires dangling from the ceiling in braziers. With the boss monster gone, the room was actually on the dim side, and only slightly warm from the fires above.
On one end of the room was the passage to the staircase leading down, from which James had come, and the standard treasure chest. On the other end was ten steps leading up to a closed iron door.
James put away his hammer and opened and closed his hand.
It felt… just fine.
He let out a sigh of relief, and tension he didn't know he'd been carrying finally relaxed.
He swept the fire jewel into his magic bag with a thought before taking out his treasure-chest-poking shovel and walking towards the chest, and giving it a cursory inspection for traps.
There were none, and it didn't collapse into a pile of dust like the one he had examined after the dragon fight, so with some excitement and anticipation, he opened the chest.
Inside, small and lonesome at the bottom, was a dark, dark crimson amulet on a leather strap. He reached down and picked it up and couldn't stop a grin spreading across his face.
[Appraisal] Steel Amulet, Quality: Average, Durability: 10/10, Enchantment: Heat Resistance (10)
Intermediate Fire Enchantment: Heat Resistance memorized.
He couldn't see it, but he could visualize it, how the pattern twisted the mana into channels, producing the magical effect. And he could feel a resonance, somewhere deep inside himself, now seeing how that same twist was at work even now, due to his own Skill.
Something tickled at the back of his mind. He had been thinking about ways to make enchantments more heat resistant. Now he had the enchantment memorized.
His stomach growled, and he put the thought aside. The amulet was shaped like some kind of cross on a circle, a symbol that meant nothing to him, but he put it on anyway.
The heat of the room lessened even further, and he was able to reduce the output on his cooling strips, and his mana stopped decreasing towards dangerous levels.
After a short break halfway down the staircase to eat some Glimmering Tortoise meat and let his mana recover out of the heat, he headed back through the boss room, up the steps, and through the iron door.
He entered a small, warm room, and after passing through found himself in a cavern lit by fires blazing in braziers hanging from the ceiling. The walls and floor were more of the dark reddish brown stone, and there were passages on either side of the cavern, as well as a large one directly across, barely visible in the dim reddish light.
James hefted his shield and hammer. Hopefully something on this floor was edible.