61: Goatie & Quasi-Supreme Naga

Fighting the tier 1 creatures of the dungeon was a very valuable experience for Corey and it made him appreciate the help the old man gave him the more.

Corey at first thought fighting the tier 1 creatures would be much easier due to him having better skills, items and also higher stats but he could not be more wrong.

Although he was stronger, he did what he did for the previous tier 1 creatures and tried to fully record all the tier 1 creatures.

After he did that, he also did something he almost forgot to do once again, upgrade his ghost gloves.

He fed it all the soul stones of every Smiley and Black Smiley he had, which was a lot considering the massacre of Smileys and Black Smileys he did on the first floor of the dormitory.

After using all the soul stones on the ghost gloves, it evolved to yellow grade and it had shocking changes.

When it was just a red grade item it only had the ability to hurt ghost like entities but after it became a yellow grade item, it gave Corey the ability to make his hands incorporeal making it to pass through living and non living things that were Tier 3 and below. He could even grab ghost like entities that were tier 3 and below now.

The abilities shocked Corey to his core since he never expected the ghost gloves to have such powerful abilities and it made him wonder how such a powerful item could drop from a Black Smiley.

'Maybe I really married the goddess of luck in my past life.'

Influenced by the Universal System, Corey had this weird thought now and then, after he upgraded the ghost gloves.

After Corey tested the ghost gloves in The Library Of Records, he entered the next room.

The next room was filled with fog and in this fog was the monster with a goat's skull and two swords as it's weapon. The monster was a level 120 tier 1 creature.

The first time Corey faced the goat skull monster in The Library Of Records he lost badly since he was not strong enough, fast enough and did not have as much fighting experience as the goat skull monster which Corey decided to call Goatie.

Goatie was a monster which was as smart as a human being in terms of combat, the only thing it lacked was the ability to speak. Not only was it proficient in combat, it also had the ability to hide it's presence in the fog which was always present in the room.

Despite Corey's improved abilities and stats, he still had to face Goatie countless times before he could kill it.

After killing it in The Library Of Records, he faced it in real life and was able to kill it. After killing it, it dropped a skill crystal and when Corey picked up the skill crystal, he was shocked when he saw the name and grade of the skill in the crystal.

The name of the skill was Full Counter and it was a legendary grade skill. It could return a magical attack sent towards him back to the caster or anywhere he wishes with twice the power!

His eyes went wide when he got this OP skill and he at first wondered why Goatie did not use the skill on him but when he remembered that he actually had no magical attack skill he realized that it was either due to that, Goatie did not use the skill or it actually didn't have the skill.

After learning the skill he used the incorporeal ability of the ghost gloves and removed the soul stone of Goatie and absorbed it since he needed it to increase his level. His level increased to 90 and he looked at the weapons of Goatie.

He walked towards the weapons then took the two swords which were called Twin Fog Swords. The swords were yellow grade items that had the ability to produce a domain of thick fog which could be controlled by him and it also had the ability to send out horizontal energy slashes.

Corey was satisfied with the swords despite him having the ancient spear since the fog ability was useful in his opinion, though it used 10 mana for every second it was activated.

He then looked at the corpse of Goatie and decided to store it in his spatial ring since who knows, the corpse might be useful later in the future.

After making sure he took everything he could take from the room, he left.

He practiced the Full Counter skill until it reached level 2 which made him able to deflect magical attacks that were Tier 2 and below, though the stronger the attack, the more difficult it would be to deflect it.

After doing all of that, he then challenged the next monster in The Library Of Records, the half-snake monster.

The half-snake monster was called a Quasi-Supreme Naga.

When Corey saw the word 'Supreme' in the name of the monster he had a feeling that maybe the blood of the All-Father was located in that room and it actually was.

The Quasi-Supreme Naga was a level 150 tier 1 monster and it was extremely powerful and frustrating to fight.

The Quasi-Supreme Naga was like a weapon fire mage with absurd regenerative abilities making it a terrifying and frustrating monster to fight.

The Quasi-Supreme Naga could produce fire and control it to a certain extent.

It could turn the fire into a fireball or a fire whip. Not only could it control and produce fire, it also used four weapons and a shield due to it having six arms.

One for using magic and the others for holding it's weapons.

Corey spent a long time fighting the monster and despite his increased stats, he was actually not a match for the monster in stats at all.

The monster was at least twice as fast as him and also twice as strong as him. Corey had to be in his focused state and also use full counter so many times to repel the magical fire attacks from the Naga.

In fact, Corey's stamina was sometimes heavily drained because of how long the battle would last.

There were times when Corey would inflict a serious injury on the monster but it would just regenerate after some seconds passed causing Corey to grow frustrated.

After dying many, many, many times, he was finally able to defeat the monster in The Library Of Records and also in real life.

After killing it, just one skill crystal dropped from it and when Corey took it, he was so happy that he laughed madly for a few minutes.

The skill crystal that dropped contained the skill called Low Regeneration which healed Corey's injuries passively and also gave Corey the ability to actively increase the speed of healing his injuries by using mana.

Although with Corey's constitution, his injuries would heal over time, Corey realized something which bothered him.

The injuries he received from tier 1 creatures healed much slower than the injuries he received from Smileys, Black Smileys or from the environment and beings below tier 1.

Corey did not understand the exact reason for this but he felt that if beings higher than tier 1 injured him then it might take an extremely long time before his injuries heal or it might not even heal at all causing him to succumb to his injuries.

But when he got the Low Regeneration skill, he noticed that some injuries which did not fully heal healed completely, although the speed was slow.

When Corey noticed the speed of his regenerative ability, his mind went to how fast the Quasi-Supreme Naga healed it's injuries and he became unsatisfied with the speed.

So he thought of a crazy and masochistic way to improve the skill which was by him repeatedly injuring himself.

He thought he could take advantage of The Library Of Records and injure himself there without him actually injuring himself in real life but well, The Universal System was definitely laughing it's ass out when he realized he couldn't cheat his way around the skill after repeatedly injuring himself in The Library Of Records.

Knowing he could not cheat his way into improving the skill without actually harming himself, he started causing harm to himself in the real world.

Causing deep cuts on his arm, hand, body and wherever possible. Smashing his hands and feet with the his ancient spear. Piercing a hole into his body also with his ancient spear. Every time he injured himself, he would use mana to actively heal himself which increased his proficiency with the skill and also increased the level of the skill.

Corey did so many things to his body to make the skill increase that if one were to see the things he did to himself, people would call Corey mad.

In fact they would call Corey a demon and a devil when they realize that Corey did not actually make a single sound during the entire process.

Throughout the entire time he stabbed, cut and smashed himself Corey felt pain but he could ignore it because of his pain resistance which was level 5.

Although Corey could ignore the pain, he did not like causing harm to himself since he felt a little bit different every time he did it, he felt more… indifferent.

Though he was worried, he was happy when he saw his low regenerative skill increase from level 1 and it finally reached level 10… but at what cost?.

And it was after reaching level 10 that the skill underwent an evolution and became average regeneration.

After the low regeneration skill increased to average regeneration, Corey stopped all the self-harm since the speed of his regenerative ability was now high… in his opinion that is.

Corey did all of this outside the room where the Quasi-Supreme Naga was located.

Before he started injuring himself, he had absorbed the soul stone of the Naga which increased his level from 90 to 100, directly taking him to the peak of Tier 0.

He stored the body of the Naga in his spatial ring then he also stored the Naga's four weapons and shield in his inventory since they were not that special in his opinion and having the ancient spear and the twin fog swords was enough for him, at least for now.

After storing the weapons and shield, he decided to walk round the room or let's say the large forest where the Quasi-Supreme Naga was located.

He left signs wherever he walked so as to not get lost and after walking around for at least an hour, he was surprised when he didn't encounter one beast or monster.

He eventually encountered somewhere strange where he saw an altar and on that altar was a floating bottle which had a drop of golden blood.

When Corey looked at it, his body had the same desire it had when he saw the blood of the ancestor of Paragons and Corey almost gave in to the desire but having experienced it once with the blood of the Paragon's Ancestor, he could control himself.

Just as he was about to store the bottle in the spatial ring given to him by the old man, the Universal System gave him a series of notifications asking him if he wants to absorb the blood right there and if he did, he would immediately become a Tier 1 being.

He told the Universal System no but it then told him that if he absorbs it, his brand level would be upgrade to the gold level and he'll receive immense benefits, not only that, he would receive increase in stats get new skills and will receive a unique physique.

Corey was stunned by the luxurious rewards proposed to him by the Universal System but when he remembered the warning given to him by the old man concerning golden brands, he knew he could not accept it.

Besides, the Universal System sounded too 'eager' for him to absorb the blood which made it suspicious in Corey's eyes.

After rejecting the Universal System once again, it kept quiet and didn't bother asking him again. Corey then placed the bottle in his spatial ring.

After doing that, he left the room and prepared to fight against the last monster in the dungeon, the multiple hands monster.

----

[A/N: Don't forget to vote with Power Stones and Golden Tickets, also don't forget to drop gifts. Any amount is appreciated. Thanks]