26 Chapter 26: Garden of Eden (Dryad)

A loud boom was heard throughout the entire dungeon. All the monsters who were busy fighting amongst themselves, hunting, resting, or even mating could not resist looking at the source of the sound.

In the large tree that stood in the center of the forest, flames could be seen on the outer edges of the tree. But the familiar sight of the large beehive was not.

Soon, another boom was heard in the same direction. This was different than the first though.

This was not the boom of an explosion. This was the crashing of a large structure from a high height.

Mordred and Persephone returned to the eighth floor to see the damage that was caused. When they got to the scene, they were shocked.

The pathway they originally traveled no longer seemed to be made of fine wood. Instead, it was burnt and black with the smell of smoke filling the air.

Parts of the floor and walls had splinters all over due to being broken due to the blast of the C4.

When the pair made their way to the end of the hallway, they could no longer see the entrance to the beehive. Instead, they only saw an opening to the sky as well as some of the branches that were descending from above.

Both walked to the edge and saw the former challenge in ruins. The beehive that was the home of one of the two dominant species of the dungeon was on the ground outside of the hive.

Once they took a closer look, they would see thousands of bees were dead in the rubble. It seemed that none who were inside of it made it out alive, not even the queen judging by the large, humanoid bee that was also within the rubble.

" *whistle* I am so glad that I got you on my team. As long as you got more stuff like that, we will definitely dominate the rankings."

Mordred was also surprised by the might of explosives. He subconsciously knew what they could do and what the result of his demolition idea would do, but seeing the end result of it all still left him in awe.

"...yeah. Anyway, we can go search for skill books later. For now, let's deal with the rest of the treantlings and the dryad."

Mordred recovered swiftly and began to move on. He had only had the system for barely a day and he was starting to get annoyed with the number of surprises it was bringing him.

Persephone agreed, so the duo of demons, led by the banshee made their way to the ninth floor. This floor was meant to act as a psuedo-safe zone for hunters who entered the dungeon. The only creatures who could enter this floor were the ones from the 10th-floor boss room.

"Alright, let's go over the plan. Inside of that room will be 10 [Elite Treantlings] and the [Dryad]. I would am honestly a little afraid to bring a male with me to fight her but I will make do with what I have.

Your main job is to deal with the Elite Treantlings and maybe provide backup for me. With your arsenal, this should not be a major issue. The only thing you need to worry about is the spores of the Dryad turning you into her lover boy.

I will borrow your familiar and a few incendiary grenades before I take on the Dryad. With by Iceball and Firebolt along with your grenades, she should not pose too much of a threat.

All in all, we should be in and out within 5 minutes, even while being careful. Anything you need to add or any questions?"

Mordred shook his head. While the plan did not sound too detailed, it did not have to be. They both knew what to expect in the dungeon and both were aware of each other's combat abilities after taking out most of the dungeon already.

Mordred instructed Nyx to follow Persephone's commands before he began to take off the suppressor and scope of his MSR. The Elite Treantlings were more powerful than the normal ones. He knew that his smaller caliber bullets would not be able to pierce through their bark.

He even decided to purchase 5 magazines of armor-piercing ammo to increase his chances of taking out the Elites with a single shot or at least crippling them with one so he would not worry about being surrounded.

Once he was fully kitted out and ready, Mordred nodded to Persephone to show that he was ready.

The group made their way to the next floor and were greeted by their enemies. There were 10 large, buff, treantlings who stood around a throne in the back of the room.

Sitting upon the throne was a very beautiful green woman with fiery red hair. As for her clothing, she was only wearing a leaf bikini that covered very little.

Seeing Mordred's group enter, the beautiful dryad showed them a dazzling smile.

"Welcome to my..." but before she could finish, a loud boom was heard. One of the elite treantlings fell to the ground with a hold in its chest.

Mordred puller back the bolt on his gun that released a cartridge before aiming at another elite treantling and opening fire. Another treantling fell soon after.

Persephone did not focus on the dryad sitting in the throne but instead shot a firebolt at the wall to her left.

The wood on the wall seemed to come alive and form a womanly figure before moving out of the direction the firebolt was launched in.

The wood broke off the figure and revealed a nude version of the dryad sitting on the throne. This was one of her abilities, and one of the reasons why this dungeon was so powerful, [Nature Avatar].

[

Tier 5 Spell: User creates an avatar made leaves, wood, plants, etc, that can act upon their will. While the avatar has none of the user's combat abilities or prowess, they carry the user's aura and presence as well as have the ability to speak the user's thoughts. The higher the level of the skill, the longer the distance that the avatar can be away from the user.

]

Since both were aware of this ability, they knew that the dryad sitting on the throne was not the true one. They had actually used Nyx with her advanced senses to find out where the dryad truly was.

Persephone and Nyx continued their assault against the dryad while Mordred focused on the elite treantlings. And just like they had planned, the battle was over in minutes.

The first to finish was Nyx and Persephone.

At first, the dryad used her various spells and high agility to dodge the firebolts, incendiary grenades, and branches launched at her while firing some to counter-attack.

But after thinking about it for a moment, Persephone asked Nyx to just lift the dryad mid-air with her telekinesis.

The dryad seemed surprised as she was left floating in mid-air and unable to resist. Seeing that, Persephone no longer held back and launched her [Frostball] at dryad.

Once the sphere hit the dryad, it exploded into a wave of freezing mist. When the wind cleared, it revealed the dryad completely frozen with a terrified expression floating in mid-air.

Nyx lifting the frozen dryad high in the room before releasing it. When the dryad crashed onto the ground, it shattered into millions of pieces with not a drop of blood or liquid flowing out.

Mordred on the other hand had to constantly dodge heavy blows from the treantlings and thorn arrows while shooting and reloading. Even with his weapons and physical stats, it still took him slightly longer to end his battle.

Once all the enemies died, the duo was disappointed to see that they had not gotten any ability books.

"The beehive has probably dispersed by now. Let's go see if any of them dropped something."

Hearing Mordred say this, Persephone slightly cheered up. Although she knew how rare high tier skill books were, she was still disappointed. Knowing that there was another boss who might have dropped something boosted her mood.

The duo made their way down to the beehive crash site. Even though the beehive and bees turned back into mana, the crater they caused by crashing into the ground remained.

But once the duo made it inside the crater, there was only a single ability book, and it was only a tier 3 poison stinger. It was not even the one that the bee queen would have dropped.

The duo had no choice but to leave the dungeon in disappointment with only 2 stomp skill books, a thorn armor skill book, and a poison stinger skill book. Nothing to brag about.

They returned to the top of the tree and stepped into the magic circle behind the dryad's throne before they were teleported outside of the dungeon.