15 Master Max's Special Attack!

After resting for a few hours, Axel opened his eyes to see that the campfire had extinguished. Only the remaining gray ashes were left sliding off the crumpled pieces of firewood. The room had dimmed in accordance, and Max had lit up a torch and threw it on the ground.

"Still need more time to rest?" Max asked.

"I think I'm good! Let's move on to the next room Master!" Axel exclaimed as he got up.

Dusting off the gravel from the lying down, Axel followed Max to the next room. As they initiated the same routine by opening the chest and Max standing to the sides after, the same pattern of spawned in succession, but this time Axel learned his lessons from the multi-aggro situation with the White Spiders. As soon as he opened the chest, he ran quickly towards a corner of the room and activated the 'Counterattack' skill. Since he was farther away from the spiders by moving to the corner, only 2 spiders were alarmed by his presence and he was able to fend off their attacks using 'Counterattack'. After killing the last spider, Axel noticed that it dropped a blue dungeon key, which was needed to unlock the next room ahead. This was one of the main components to a dungeon in the Mabinogi game, where dungeon gates in new rooms could only be unlocked with a dungeon key of a corresponding where one of the monsters from a previous would eventually drop upon defeating it.

Upon clearing the room by finishing up the black bats and country rats by repeating normal attacks, he inhaled a huge breath of air to refresh his blood flow.

"Haaaaaahhhhh! Master, give me a few minutes to rest up." Axel complained as he placed one hand on the wall and relaxed.

"Tsk, tsk." Max shook his head as he clicked his tongue back and forth. This student of his had a long way to go before becoming a full-fledged adventurer that could hold in own in dungeons like this. However, his growth from the first room to the second had also been quite frightening as he had learned the ways to efficiently engage in combat while saving enough stamina to go on to the next room. This was not something a normal adventurer could grasp within a short amount of time. Any other adventurer at Axel's current level and status would have perished in the first room of the dungeon due to lack of experience and awareness of combat.

After about one hour, Axel stopped gasping so hard and they went on to the next room to see an empty room with only a lock on the dungeon gate.

"Go ahead and use the blue dungeon key on the gate. Alby Dungeon is about 5 to 6 rooms in total excluding the boss room. We should be almost done with the dungeons in a few hours." said Max as he pointed towards the dungeon gate.

In a single motion, Axel pushed the arm-sized blue dungeon key into the blue gate lock in the middle of the wall, and a clicking sounded nearby. The chains had pulled up the gate, and the pathway to the next room was open. This was the 4th room of the dungeon already, and the monsters in the remaining rooms would be more much formidable than the previous rooms.

Axel pondered about how long he had spent in the dungeon. Counting the few hours he had slept by the campfire and the duration of the fights in the first and second rooms, he had roughly been inside the dungeon for almost half a day. This was unthinkable inside the game of Mabinogi, as a simple dungeon like Alby Dungeon should have only taken about 5 minutes in the game even with the lowest level and worst equipment.

Trudging forward to the middle of the chest in the 4th room, Axel started his usual routine and ducked away to the corner when the chest was opened. What spawned next frightened Axel quite a bit, as they were spiders again, but this time their legs and abdomen were clad in red hairs and shells. These bloody crimson features awakened a sore memory in Axel's brain. Red Spiders were a stronger breed of spiders that had a combat strength that was on par with a black wolf that Axel had encountered in the pastures. The attack speed of their legs were extremely fast, and new players in the Mabinogi game often fell prey to them in the early stages of the game. Not only that, they had a had chance to landing a 'Critical Hit' which was a term meaning a probability to deal damage that far surpasses a normal hit by several times its usual power. Their abilities were not to be taken lightly as any mistake could lead to immediate death and Axel was shivering while sticking himself to the wall like super glue.

Seeing that Axel had made an accurate judgment as to how strong these Red Spiders were in combat strength, Max hasted himself and drew his broadsword, ready to attack the 4 spiders. His blade's shine seemed to almost blind those around. He was worried that his student would truly perish if all 4 of the Red Spiders had ganged up on him, as Axel's status was only focused on strength building and paid no attention to any defensive abilities.

With a lunge like thrust, he stabbed at the nearest Red Spider as if the broadsword had turned into a rapier and continued turning the sword like a drill while running to the next Red Spiders. The sudden attack had ripped the first Red Spider into mincemeat, and the 2nd and 3rd spiders were also decimated in a similar fashion. Now only one Red Spider was left standing in confusion as it put its guard up against the human that had easily defeated its comrades.

"Jesus!" Axel cried out in loud whisper. He could not believe what had transpired before his eyes. First was the azure blade long-ranged blade attacks he had seen Max release in the first room, and now he saw a different attack that rivaled perhaps thrice the amount of combat power of a 'Smash' skill.

"Don't stare at me for too long! It'll be a long time before you can use this skill! It's one of the advanced forms of the 'Smash' skill called 'Rapid Spike'. The long-ranged blade attack you saw in the first room is also a Spellsword skill called 'Limelight Cutter'. For now, focus on using 'Smash' at the Red Spider, it's your only chance at victory!" Max yelled out in the distance.

Now that Axel had refocused his attention the remaining Red Spider, he drew a combat stance, causing the Red Spider to notice his presence. In an instant, he could barely follow what had happened, and the Red Spider's arms and legs were already madly attacking Axel like a deadly tornado.