Centaurus

Centaurus.

Being on earth believed to consist of the upper part of the human and lower part of a horse. It was hard to say whether the entire race wasn't originally an object of some perverse fantasy of the bored noblewomen.

But in the dungeon that Arthur was scavenging, it was a formidable opponent to be wary of. With the deep orange hue of the letters that marked its name, the young man could tell that this wouldn't be easy prey. A quick look at the battle metrics only confirmed Arthur's guess.

Right now, despite being level six, whose attributes should sum up to barely sixty-four, Arthur's six strengths all oscillated around a hundred. With a total sum of six hundred, twenty-four points, Arthur would otherwise classify as the lower rank, level ten.

Compared to the measly three hundred that an average spiderling would have, this Centaurus was an opponent on a whole different level. With his agility, strength and endurance nearly equal to those of Arthur, he was obvious to be a tough opponent to defeat.

Pulling out his sword, Arthur moved from behind the cover. With his crystal ball back to its round shape in his hand, he already prepared all the cards that he got. During his time in the dungeon, the young man decided against following the high-risk high-reward path of an assassin. According to some RPG logic, he should focus on a single attribute to make it so unbearably strong that no one could face against him.

But the real-life was different. Just like most of the games depicted it, the human race was good by being average with everything. No matter how nice ring it had to be a master in a single discipline, there was hardly any world even in the fiction where the specialised races like dwarfs or elves would dominate over humanity. And just like that, being the jack-of-all-trades was the safest option that Arthur could pick for his own growth.

Because that meant, no matter what the strengths of his opponent would be, he would always keep an edge in the things that his enemies would be weak at.

"Hmph…"

Noticing the intruder, the strange monster made out of a bottom of a horse but a top of a humanoid bull snarled before charging right at the threat. Noticing the heavy-weighted mass of four legs and two strong, powerful arms holding an oversized axe, Arthur stood his ground.

Even the floor of the dungeon shook to the rhythm of this monster's gallop. Closing in with every second, the Centaurus brought the head of his axe back. Swinging it forward, the edge of the lethal weapon flew towards Arthur's head.

"Barrier."

Perfectly calm and composed, the young man raised his left hand towards the incoming attack. Moving just a single step to the side, his hand suddenly exploded with light. And then, the axe struck.

But instead of splitting the young man's body apart, it reflected against a thin shield that Arthur's orb turned the light into. Sliding down the angled barrier, Centaurus weapon carried its momentum forward, forcing the monster to keep going. Regretfully for Arthur's opponent, the corridor behind them continued only to the sides.

Faced with an impenetrable wall of this mindboggling structure, the four-legged monster attempted to stop. But Arthur didn't give it a chance to do so. Using this little amount of energy that the monster's axe pushed the barrier with, he swung on his feet before using the momentum to execute a simple slash.

At first, Arthur could feel just a slight resistance in his hand, soon replaced with something hard before his handle almost slipped out of his hand. Knocking away at something too tough to cut, the young man backed off a few steps.

"So I can't cut its bones… That's a pity…" Speaking to himself like a madman, Arthur lowered himself on his knees as the monster shook the shock of the failed attack of its horned head. Wrestling its body around in fury, it quickly turned around before charging once again. This time, it's axe was set for a vertical rather than horizontal attack.

"From above? I can work with that, " whispering to himself in his own mind, Arthur shook his ball to diffuse the energy of the barrier back into the ball. Watching the approaching monster with care, the young man prepared to do something that even most reckless adventurers in normal dungeons would consider to be suicidal.

Arthur prepared to jump forward.

Just as the Centaurus brought its axe up for a powerful overhead cut, the young man rushed forward. For the monster to attack from above, it needed to redirect the energy of its charge into its hands for the attack to be successful. And for such a strenuous task, it had to keep both of its powerful arms on the axe's handle.

Using this window, Arthur brought his left hand to the front again. "Sink!" Allowing his emotions to take the better of him and shouting, the young man pointed the orb… At the ground just in front of the beast. Not below it. Just outside of where it would land to execute the attack.

And then, he rushed right into the trap he prepared himself.

SLAM!

The axe was brought down. While it failed to strike against the floor directly with its edge, just the power behind this attack was enough to smash the tiles of the floor apart. Even though they were hit with the side of this enormous weapon.

Drip, drip, drip.

Blood slowly trickled down from the wood of the axe's handle.

With half of his body sunk into the stone floor of the dungeon's level, Arthur kept his sword deeply into the innards of the monster. Just like in the previous encounters with similar creatures, its upper part was too tough to deal with. But that left even bigger part of the monster nothing more than a vulnerability. All that Arthur had to do, was to make its way towards it unharmed.

"Push." Rather than bothering to pull out his sword from the bottom part of the monster's corpse, Arthur pointed his crystal ball at the sizeable chunk of meat skewered on his sword. His eyes strained a bit when a huge amount of his energy left the ball to do its ordained work.

Once the huge body of Centaurus finally fallen to the floor beside Arthur's trap, he directed his ball at the pool of strange matter he was in. With the same spell still working its magic, he managed to use the orb like a small engine to pull himself upwards, away from the trap.

Taking a look at the surroundings once his feet made contact with the ground, Arthur ascertained there were no other monsters coming after him. Only then did he allow his crystal ball to sprawl all over his left arm before hovering his palm above the corpse of the monster.

"Absorb." In just a few seconds, the body of the just defeated beast turned into strange particles of light, quickly sucked into Arthur's arm. While at it, the young man looked at the clock.

"Only thirteen hours remaining…" Shaking his head, Arthur quickly finished the clean-up before checking on his equipment once again. This was the most basic routine that he forced on himself. Ending up weaponless in a fight against a powerful monster only happened once to him. But that single event was enough to brutally teach him a lesson.

"With the orange monster appearing, I guess the boss should be near. Well, I still should have the time to look for the small treasure…" Taking a look around as he spoke to himself, Arthur bit his lips to the blood. While the spirit of scavenger was an important part of what kept him alive over the past two years, he never came so close to failing a task. And no matter how useful the hidden treasure of the semi-boss could be, it would be all for nought if he would end up failing the mission!

"Mom… I won't let you die. I promise." Closing his eyes for a moment, Arthur tightened his grip over the handle of his sword. The darkness of the corridor leading to the boss room was filled with desperation and pain… But it also held hope. With each conquered floor, Arthur was inching one step closer to freeing himself from those arduous tasks.

"Who could've thought that I would crave a perfectly normal and uneventful life at such a pristine age…" Allowing himself a moment of mental rest, Arthur closed his eyes as he joked about his situation to himself. And then he opened his eyes. Thirteen hours left. The targeted monster was still hidden somewhere. Moving forward once again, Arthur wasn't going to take any risks.