Rock Slime King

Meanwhile, in the dungeon, Noir stood stationary where he was before, with both his hands on the hilt of his sword and his eyes closed. Something was different about the air around him after spending many hours practising in the shaking environment.

It had been a long time since he had practised this pseudo-form of meditation. All the sweat he had previously had dried up now as Noir continued practising the breathing technique the Great Sage gave him. Concentrating solely on his sword, his mana and his connection to these two points.

Even though the Slime snored enough to make the air tremble, Noir remained untouched with only his clothes and hair seemingly affected. But if you looked closer, you would see a light green hue around him. It wasn't just him though as that light extended to his longsword, which seemed to be getting brighter by the second.

Just a bit more... He was almost there for his goal. He could feel his mana getting harder to control as the light got more intense. His body was aching and his mind was exhausted, but Noir continued to push through the pain and fatigue.

Earlier, he was considering taking a break after spending 2 hours straight swinging his sword, but it was then that he felt something urge him to continue. It was like a gentle hand that pulled his arms and mana, guiding his energy in the right places as he felt some of his exhaustion disappear. As he followed the sensation, he felt the mana begin to flow properly before guiding it to gather around the tip of his sword.

"Huuuu," With every exhale Noir took, his sword would glow brightly. If you took a closer inspection of it, you could see there were two layers of colours around it. One was the same green hue that covered Noir's body and the other was a bit darker.

From afar it looked almost like a light bulb, but like any light bulb, it had its limits. Noir quickly learned that as he felt his concentration faltering. He had reached his limits.

"AAAAAHGHG"

But that didn't affect him as with a loud yell that only he could hear, Noir opened his eyes as he yelled out with everything he had. It was the heaviest swing he could muster, amplified by the aura inspired by his epiphany moment.

In that brief moment, Noir witnessed a blade of mana fire out of his sword as the light surrounding it had gotten brighter. The sudden light almost blinded him as he had his eyes closed for over an hour, but the only thing he could think about was how amazing it looked.

He was mesmerised by the raw form of mana that he had created. He couldn't believe he had done it, but before he could process the emotions of victory, the mana blade hit the boulder in front of him, causing an explosion upon impact.

"Kuh," The shockwaves from the explosion didn't seem to have affected him as much as he had expected, but in the moment of processing what just happened, a bit of the debris struck his abdomen. The force was enough to lift him off the ground and leave the boss room once more.

"Fuck that hurts," Noir complained when he pushed the stone from his body before he checked for any injuries. "That could have killed me..." He sighed as he looked back at the stone. It was the size of a football and was coming at him like someone swung a baseball at full power.

If it was an ordinary person, something like that would've killed them, if not severely injured them. Fortunately, Noir only received a small bruise instead.

"Did I level up or did I become less human?" The thought of it made him chuckle as he looked back at the boulder. It was missing its top part while the bottom was covered with cracks or missing pieces.

"Maybe a mixture of the two?" He didn't think much about it as he marvelled at the damage. The Slime King didn't seem affected by the noise, which didn't surprise Noir since its snores were louder than the explosion.

But after doing his best at the task he set upon himself, he seemed to have gained a new skill and technique. Now he doesn't have to rely purely on mana stones for long-range attacks.

"Although that consumes more than half my mana reserves, I can work on that though," It wasn't perfect, but it was getting there. With that, he had achieved 2/3 of his goal and a bonus.

However, he wanted to get used to his aura before beginning the final task. Although he was fairly certain that his skill levelled up during training, he wanted to be certain that it was accurate. He found a small boulder as he focused his mana and channelled it around his legs before launching a strong roundhouse kick.

*Boom* A small boom came as the rock shattered to pieces. Yup, it levelled up as Noir was satisfied with the result.

'Levelling up and gaining skills are crazy,' Keeping the dice rolling, Noir did some running with his Aura. He started running towards a nearby boulder, but his movements were clumsy and uncoordinated from the sudden shift in speed. Leading him to almost fall a few times before quickly catching himself in the process.

'I guess I got better at stopping myself from falling now too...' It was a bonus, but he felt unsatisfied with how inconsistent his speed was now. It was too fast for him to control now, but even clumsily running around was faster than his normal pace.

Now he had to train for something else. There was something else that he was worried about so after some deep breathing to calm himself down, Noir channelled more mana into his legs as he jumped.

"Oh fuauack!" And almost immediately he lost all coordination as he flailed his arms and legs with no sense of recovery. He wasn't expecting to jump almost quadruple his height. Instead, he got to see a pretty impressive view of the slime valley before gravity intervened and made him fall, landing on his back.

"Ugh, that's… It's gonna take some time to get used to that feeling." Noir coughed as he felt a tinge of pain in his back, but it quickly disappeared. Unfortunately, he still has a fear of heights.

"Looks like I have almost everything prepared. It should be a few hours till sunset so I should be fine."

Seeing that, Noir immediately started running and jumping around to get used to the change. He started first outside of the boss room to get a hang of it before moving back into the boss room once he got comfortable. All in all, it didn't take him that long to get used to the feeling as after about an hour of training he felt comfortable doing either.

"Huuu, I feel much better now and my fatigue is gone. Let's try defeating this boss now." After a short break, he was in tip-top condition.

He had prepared everything that he could, and although he liked the idea of continuing to use the boss as a training room, he figured that it would respawn later so there was always another chance to train again. Even if it didn't, he couldn't delay moving to the next floor any further.

"CHRRRIIII..!"

"I've gotten sick of hearing this over and over again. I'm almost surprised I hadn't gone deaf yet," Noir mumbled as he ascended to a better vantage point. Ideally, he wanted a place where he could do some long-range attacks before getting closer to use his sword.

Once he found a decent spot, he immediately started charging his mana into the blade. It didn't take as long as he did the first time, but it might be due to his inexperience with the skill, it took 20 seconds to charge before he created a mana slash. A chunk of its rocky flesh had fallen off, but it wasn't deep enough to expose its inner body just yet.

He didn't stand there and watch the Slime lose its sleepy face that had turned into rage. Instead, he jumped slightly lower, kicked a Slime core, and ran from boulder to boulder.

"CHRRIII!!!!

The air rumbled with a magnitude unlike before as some of the boulders started to vibrate and crumble. One of the boulders that Noir was standing on shattered on impact, but he had just barely enough leeway to jump on another to shoot a mana core before repeating the process a few times.

'Fuck, good thing I got used to this place but this is still going to be a tough one.' He could feel his legs wanting to cave in, so he's been able to push through with it by pouring more mana into his legs. He doesn't have any leeway to adapt to this level of vibration so the only thing he could do was stay off the ground and attack as much as possible.

"CHRRIII"

The Slime King wasn't inclined to give Noir the chance, however, as it produced another scream that broke all the nearby boulders. It was loud enough to give Noir a headache but it wasn't enough to make him tumble over as he landed on the ground before quickly running for cover and kicked a Slime Core to distract it.

When he felt the Slime was focusing on the Wind Core, he ran behind it and kicked another Wind Core at its wound.

"CHRi"

But when Noir thought he was clear, the Rock Slime King made a ferocious smile before rolling towards him!

"Fuck that's fast."

Noir flashed a nervous smile as he quickly sidestepped away. The Slime Core he kicked out seemed to have bounced off its armour, but while the Slime was affected by its forward momentum, Noir ran behind it and gave it a kick with all he got.

However, it didn't do much for it. If anything, it served as a little boost to the Slime, making it spin faster.

"At least I don't feel any recoil."

There wasn't much impact from kicking it, which was a good thing for him, but he had to prepare for what the Rock Slime was about to do.

"CHRIIII."

The King Slime stopped rolling and gave Noir a glare before making a loud screech. There was something different about this one though. Some of the nearby boulders were picked up from the ground, others were randomly summoned before being fired like a bullet towards Noir.

While Noir managed to avoid the first few shots because they weren't accurate, he had to react quickly to dodge the rest of the boulder bullets as he ran around the field in a zigzag pattern.

Where Noir had once stepped, a series of rocks would soon follow. Sometimes he would have to make large leaps to avoid being led to a dead end or a trap, other times he'd have to bend his body into uncomfortable positions. There were even a few times he'd be forced to use his sword enhanced by Aura to deflect stray bullets or use a wind core to force himself out of difficult places while in the air.

In front of Noir, there were no opportunities for him to attack the Rock Slime King. This was because whenever he tried to get closer it would summon more rocks to defend itself. Moreover, whenever he tried to kick a mana core at it, it would promptly defend itself with another boulder bullet.

It seemed to have a limitless supply of ammunition. In addition to limiting what Noir could do, it made a human-like grin to taunt Noir at their differences.

'Fuck, does it not have an attack pattern?' The situation seemed hopeless as the thought of running away seemed like a viable strategy for Noir. However, he gritted his teeth as he continued to search for a way to defeat it.

He had run all over the field by now. He even had to run over boulders that were once bullets as he used his parkour skills to their limits. At this moment, adrenaline and fear of death pushed him beyond his fear of heights.

'Wait, there it is!' It may have been due to his senses being enhanced by the fear of dying, or maybe an illusion his eyes were playing, but Noir noticed something.

'It was brief, but it definitely paused,' He wasn't too sure about it however as he quickly started counting in his head while dodging. Once he counted to 20, he could've sworn he saw the Slime take a small breather before continuing its screaming.

'That's definitely its weak point.' It was a short timeframe, but it was a chance to make a comeback. Just to be certain he waited another 20 seconds to see if he could get the timing right. When he felt he could time it correctly, he started his comeback.

When the Slime finished its cycle and fired its final bullet, Noir immediately poured more mana into his legs in an attempt to accelerate as quickly as possible, making the Slime King look flustered as it tried to defend itself but couldn't move.

Because of his speed, his form was wobbly, but thanks to the time he spent running around, he had gotten better at manoeuvring around with the wind core as assistance. After getting close enough, he jumped and performed an axe kick with the help of another wind core.

"Chchchhh"

A sharp, crisp sound of rocks breaking could be heard as the Rock Slimes' hard exterior made small cracks with a dull orange light piercing through. He finally did some damage, but he couldn't enjoy the small victory for long as the Slime King tried rolling away to get rid of Noir.

'Looks like it's gonna take some rinse and repeat,' Noir managed to jump off in time as he wiped some of the sweat on his face as he waited for the Slime King, who was rolling towards him. He jumped to avoid its attack but it continued to roll around.

Seeing it change its strategy, Noir decided to do the same. While running, he charged his sword with mana as he prepared for another mana slash. After the axe kick, his reserves were getting low, but he was able to keep going thanks to the mana recovery skill he gained earlier.

After a few more seconds than usual, Noir was able to charge up the blade as he fired out a light green mana slash hitting the Slime King directly. He could feel mental exhaustion hitting him but he gritted his teeth, much like the Slime King that stopped and glared at Noir.

It had more cracks around it compared to before and without skipping a beat, Noir kicked a fire core. He had already used up a lot of wind mana cores so he wanted to conserve them in case of something else.

"CHRIIII"

The Rock Slime wasn't happy about that as it rolled around and launched rocks to fight back, whereas Noir used his previous strategies to good use. More cracks formed as the orange light got brighter, but his attacks were still too shallow to hit the slime's innards.

'It should be around now that it calls for reinforcements,' He recalled the Great Sage's words as he braced himself for the upcoming army while performing another kick to the Slime King.

"CHRIRCHIRI!!"

And as if to match his thoughts, the Slime made a different screech as the sounds of rocks falling could be heard from all directions. If you looked at the horizon, you could see large black dots all around as they were slowly getting bigger.

"Heh, you can summon all those little turds. You're just giving me more ammo," Noir taunted at the Slime that seemed to bear some kind of intelligence as it made an annoyed face. The smaller slimes were starting to gather, but even with the numbers against him he didn't feel phased. Instead, it only fueled his determination as he charged into the attack.

He gracefully dodged and deflected the king's attacks, as a rush of energy took over him and he jumped upon the king once more.

"Ooouup," With a quick grunt, Noir used his sword to wedge into the cracks of the Slime King as he delivered an axe kick at its hilt, hitting it like a hammer to a nail.

"CHRIIEIEIE."

Without hesitation, Noir leapt away from the writhing slime. The creature was frantically rolling in an attempt to remove the sword, but all it accomplished was driving the blade deeper as it let out a painful wail.

"Too bad it's not deep enough. Another kick should do the trick."

By now he was surrounded by Rock Slime on all sides, but instead of feeling overwhelmed, he looked at them with a look of contempt on his face as he ran around kicking the nearby slimes. He was easily able to kick them apart one by one, forcefully stripping them of their mana cores, which he would use as replacements for the ones he had already used.

Occasionally, he'd pick up a faulty core or ones that were too damaged to repair, but it didn't hinder him as he continued his relentless attack against the slimes, dodging around and harassing the King Slime whenever he had the chance.

But even with his limits pushed, the constant movements were starting to take their toll on Noir's body.

"Looks like I've got about half left," Noir said to himself as he kicked one slime into another, taking a brief moment to catch his breath. Despite still having energy, his body was taking more damage than he could handle. He could feel blood running down his arm where a slime had grazed him earlier, but the pain was dulled by the rush of adrenaline he was feeling, and he intended to make the most of it.

'I've got about 5 of each left,' Noir thought as he shook the four pouches at his waist, dodging another attack. He didn't have time to stop and count exactly how many cores he had left, so he had learned to estimate through experience in the past few days.

Despite having less than two dozen cores remaining, there were nearly triple that many slimes still left.

"The level-ups better be worth the effort,"

He tried to convince himself that the level-up would be worth it all. Speaking aloud to clear his mind of unnecessary worries as he focused on kicking the slimes and getting used to the feeling of them breaking apart. At times, he had the opportunity to kick them one after another. Sometimes he'd get the chance to pick up a core by performing a rainbow flick and kick it at another slime, but often times they would all jump at him at once, making it difficult for him to conserve his mana cores or energy.

While fighting, he could sense the fierce glare of the King Slime filled with malice as it made commands to the slimes. Noir couldn't help but taunt it as he mockingly stuck out his tongue and gave it the middle finger.

"CHRI CHRRIII CHR CHR CHRRII-"

And as he expected, the creature got angry as their numbers dwindled to single digits. Taking advantage of the king slime's inattention, Noir ran up to a rock slime and kicked it towards the king.

"Chriieeeeeeeeee?!?!"

He didn't kick it with everything he had unfortunately, allowing the slime to let out a screech as it flew to the king, notifying it of the incoming attack.

"CHRII?"

But by the time the King Slime realized what was happening, it was already too late. The small rock slime had closed in, just a few meters away and was moving at a speed that made it impossible for the king to evade it.

Although it collided, it wasn't enough to deliver the killing blow, but it was then that the Slime King did the unthinkable for a boss.

"CHRI!!!"

Wounded and in pain, it let out one last deafening roar as it turned to flee.

"It's running?"

Noir looked at it in confusion as it left behind a trail of rubble and dust in its wake. It didn't take long before that confusion turned into a smirk as he chased after it once he dealt with the remaining small fries.

He could hear the sound of its laboured breathing getting louder and louder as it fled. As it turned to check if it had gained any distance from Noir, it panicked upon seeing him still close behind and redoubled its efforts to escape, but it was too late

"You made me run a ton for this moment, shit head."

Noir wore a smirk as he chased after the slime with ease. He didn't seem to be in a rush to catch it, but his intent to kill it was clear.

As for the Slime King, it was making curse remarks. In its entire existence as a boss monster, it had never encountered a creature as relentless and adaptable as Noir. Despite the injuries he had sustained, his body refused to give up.

This was also the first time it had ever felt the need to flee. All it could think of was dodging and rolling away as far as possible from Noir. But unfortunately for it, it was always one step behind.

As it tried to roll away, it was met with an unexpected obstacle that pushed it backwards and left it disoriented. When it tried to roll again, it was met with the same invisible wall as it heard a chuckle from behind.

"You don't see boss monsters leave their room after all."

It heard a short mumble before everything turned black and its entire being crumbled. The only thing it could do was look at Noir in defeat as it was finally destroyed.

"Haaa… I'm dead. That was a tough one."

And with its defeat, Noir's exhaustion finally caught up to him as he sat on the floor, looking up at the artificially lit room with a satisfied smile on his face. He had made significant progress and he felt confident that if he faced low-rank adventurers or maybe even a middle-ranked one with some difficulty.

Unfortunately, he didn't have much time to ponder on his own strength as a sudden pain wracked his body.

"AGH-!" He groaned as he collapsed onto the floor. His entire body felt like it was tearing itself apart.

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