Oh Lawd
After hours of slaughter and exploration, I have finally made it to the end of the ninth floor, finding another blue door that would bring me to the tenth.
The theming of all the floors I have been on so far has consistently stayed as a graveyard, but that's not to say that things haven't changed at all.
For one, the size of the floors has increased considerably, making me take longer to find the entrance to the next floor. Even though there are no giant walls to signal the edges of the floor, I have at times walked into something every gamer hates and fears.
Invisible barriers.
The first time I ran into one was on the fourth floor when while sprinting and trying to find the next group of zombies to kill, I suddenly had my spider sense go off, warning me of impending contact with 'something' in front of me.
I stopped but didn't see anything that I could have been warned against, so I cautiously continued walking forward when it hit me, quite literally.
After some investigating along the borders on several floors, I found that the area I was allowed to explore seemed to be a circle each time, with the radius gradually increasing.
Another thing that changed was the enemies. The levels had, of course, climbed higher and higher with each floor, reaching around 18 and 19 on the ninth floor, which meant my experience bar finally started moving at a decent pace again, and my money was increasing at a more acceptable rate but still much slower than before the update.
More than that, though, the variation in enemies increased as the common zombies started to be accompanied by more specialized ones, with some being really speedy while others had a large amount of health and could even tank a hit from me.
Oh, and the fifth floor had what I assume to be a miniboss since it was the only thing on that floor and much stronger than any enemies that had appeared earlier. Still, he was only a level 10 brainless zombie, so it took no more than a minute to dispose of him.
Walking forward, I extend my hand toward the glowing blue door, and after getting the usual message about proceeding to the next floor, I expect to be teleported to the next floor just like previous times but instead get a warning message.
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[WARNING!]
[Entering the floor of this area's boss!]
[You won't be able to leave until the boss has been defeated.]
[Proceed to the next floor anyways?]
[YES / NO]
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I'm not particularly worried about dying to the boss. If the trend of enemies on each floor being a few levels higher than the previous continues, it should be at most level 22, which is no problem for me.
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Name - Peter Parker
Race - Human
Level - 37
Class - Spider-man (37 / 100)
XP - 21%
HP - 1,190 / 1,190 (238 per hour)
SP - 3,900 / 3,900 (390 per minute)
MP - 4,550 / 4,550 (462.5 per minute)
STR - 160
VIT - 119
END - 156
DEX - 186
INT - 182
WIS - 185
LCK - 10
CHA - 10
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Hunting in the dungeon has increased my level by 2 in such a short time. Despite the enemies being low leveled and not giving me much experience, the sheer number I have killed has made it add up to quite a bit.
I'm delighted to have a new method to increase my level because hunting down criminals in New York City is both slow and inefficient since they are usually below level 10 unless they are the elites of the maggia or kingpin.
Increasing stats through training has slowed down, too, probably because casual fights and patrol are no longer physically demanding without going on for a long time without breaks. I should probably look into getting some weights or maybe take a mage class that can do gravity magic to challenge myself more in the future. That is not possible until the far future, though.
My skills during this dungeon trip have not changed much other than Observe finally reaching level 4, mainly because it was already near max xp.
I had thought that using my sword the whole time to carve up enemies would give me some sort of a sword proficiency skill, but I've been left disappointed. Thinking about it, I used to gain skills really easily during my first few weeks in this world, but at some point, I stopped getting any new ones, and I have no clue why.
System how do I submit a bug report?
Hearing no reply from the system, I shrug and click yes on the previous message to fight the boss.
After a few seconds, rather than the usual open area of the previous floors, I find myself in a large room that looked like it was once well decorated but has since deteriorated and aged with time as even the walls and floor had cracks running along them.
The ceiling was being held up by four large pillars that looked like I could easily hide behind in case of an attack.
Hide from who, you ask? Well, the giant creature that was just lying on the ground in the middle of the room was now getting up while letting out a loud roar. He is a bit bigger than any of the other zombies on previous floors and wields a broken sword in his right hand, though the worst part about him is the terrible stench he admits.
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[Zombie Lord] [Tier: Elite]
[Level 15]
[HP - 15,000 / 15,000]
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Elite? What does that mean? Upon asking that question in my head, another panel pops up to explain.
[Elite tier enemies have all their stats multiplied by two.]
That's terrifying! Not because it would be hard to defeat this boss but because of what this could entail for my future.
I was already afraid of what level someone like Thanos could be, but now that I know about tiers, my fear has increased tenfold! It's safe to say he would be at a really high level, but what if he has a tier that multiplies his stats by 100 times or something crazy like that?
How the fuck do I even fight against something like that? I might as well just lay down and stop breathing right now to save him the trouble of having to kill me.
Well, maybe it's too early to panic. I don't know if anyone that isn't a monster in the dungeon even has tiers. It's entirely possible they don't since I don't think Sandman had one though I can't be 100% sure since I hadn't leveled up my observe skill yet at that point.
Yes, let's just calm down for now. Perhaps these tiers only exist in dungeons, and if not, maybe there is another way to combat this, like increasing my own tier. I will just take things as they come and not throw away my life here because of a moment of panic.
Bringing my attention back to the Zombie Lord, I see that he has managed to get off the ground but isn't doing anything other than just standing and staring at me. Is he waiting for me to start the fight?
I can appreciate not being attacked straight away. Maybe this is to give me time to make a strategy or something.
Despite him having double stats due to his tier, I don't think this fight will be much of a challenge either way.
Why? Well, because this arena makes it real easy for me to not get hit. Before even attacking him, I just web up to the ceiling and cling onto it with my wall-crawling. With the height of this room, there is no way for the boss to even reach me up here, so all I have to do is spam mana bolt, and he will die eventually.
I was a bit worried he would have some sort of a ranged attack, but after the first minute of the fight, it is clear he can do nothing to me except glare at me and growl angrily. He does try throwing his sword at me, but his aim is terrible, and it misses completely.
Once he is at 25% health, he starts getting angrier and breaks two of the four pillars around him, sending stones flying everywhere, some even managing to hit me and deal a few points of damage, but it's all futile as only after three minutes since the battle started he drops dead… well he was already dead, but you know what I mean.
To be honest, I don't think it would have been a difficult fight even if I didn't cheese him like this. After all, this does seem like a tutorial area, so the boss shouldn't be impossible, right?
I don't quite level up from the fight, but I do get pretty close to the next level. In terms of loot, he gives me a crapload of money, 1 million dollars to be exact, as well as a bunch of that rotten flesh and a pile of potions.
Other than that, though, there are also some boots.
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[Old Leather Boots] (Common)
[Durability - 9 / 50]
[Defence - 10]
Increases movement speed by 5%. Smells terrible.
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Yeah, not putting these things on. The 5% movement speed is nowhere near worth the downside of being the smelliest hero of New York.
Also, how much is 10 defense? Looking at the quality of these, probably not much.
Near the back wall, opposite where I appeared, a blue door appears out of thin air. It's probably what will take me to the next floor or area. In front of that door, though, is a chest that looks to be in good condition compared to the rest of this room.
Going to the chest, I lean forward and open the lid. Inside there is one small gem.
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[Small Strength Gem]
Increases strength by 10.
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That entire chest for this little gem? I mean, I will take it, no need to throw away free stats, but I was expecting more…
Next, I check out the blue door.
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[Floor 11 -Fungal Forest]
[Condition: Defeat the Zombie Lord]
[Current Progress: 1 / 1]
[Proceed to the next floor?]
[YES / NO]
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Instead of proceeding, I close the window and use the dungeon explorer skill to leave this place. I've been in here for hours now, and May will be getting back soon, so I will continue on another day.
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Note: Hopefully, another chapter tomorrow, and I'm not making any promises here, but I will try to do daily updates next week.
To any Ukrainians reading, I know preying and saying nice words over the internet is utterly useless, but I wish you all the best of luck. All of us from other countries can only protest for the governments to do something, and it sucks.