9 Level 40

After they finished replenishing their stats, Shizuka, Nori, Lusha and Klyn made their way up the stairs. After pushing the gate open Shizuka stepped into a large ceremonial type hall.

On the sides of the hall large pillars ran up to the ceiling, between each pillar was a cavity that had been carved out of the face of the rock. Inside each of the cavities were statues of knights, each holding a longsword.

There were two small rivers of lava flowing from the sides of gate they just entered, all the way through the hall, reaching a circular room with a platform in the middle. On top of the platform was a larger statue of a knight in fancy armor, it had a sword in one hand and a tower shield in the other.

Shizuka took another step forward when suddenly the rivers of lava started to boil. The statues between the pillars started to glow red hot as cracks started to appear on the surface. Chunks of rock fell off of each of the statues, revealing figures in shiny black armor, flames dancing around them. Stepping off the pedestals, the last bit of rock fell of them as they turned and started walking towards the party. With each step they took, the ground melted and left behind a small pool of lava.

[Lava Knight - Level 42]

Quickly counting them, Shizuka could see that there were 30 Lava Knights in total. Luckily the the bigger statue at the end of the hall had not moved yet.

"We should keep our distance from the big one, it's probably the floor guardian. And these guys aren't slimes, we can't afford to fight them and the guardian at the same time." Lusha said as she buffed the party. Agreeing, the party readied their weapons.

Providing support to Nori and Klyn, Shizuka created walls of ice to push several knights away so that they didn't get surrounded. Nori and Klyn were teaming up on one knight at a time to finish each one quickly, Nori would parry each knight as Klyn would cleave them in two.

Leaving behind piles of shredded armor, the party slowly progressed down the hallway. Shizuka made sure to take a second to collect each of the bodies as they were killed. She had already collected two pieces of gear as well as some metal materials.

Finishing off the final Lava Knight, the ground started to shake as rock chunks fell off the bigger statue.

"Get ready, here he comes." Nori said as they walked into the circular room.

As soon as they stepped into the circular room with the large statue, the lava encircling them burst out, shooting up to the ceiling, closing off their escape.

Looking around at the newly created arena, Shizuka started to sweat as fatigue washed over her due to the immense heat. She tried to activate her passive to counteract it but the ice her passive made would instantly melt as soon as it was created. Her vision blurred a bit as her movement became sluggish.

Seeing this, Lusha cast her fire resistance blessing on Shizuka which was enough to clear her vision but not much else.

"We need to finish this guy off fast, Shizuka won't last long in this heat." Lusha said.

The party looked ahead as they saw the guardian step off his platform. It was twice the size of a person, wore black armor with red flames etched along the edges and brandished a sword the size of Shizuka. Behind it's helmet's visor, red orbs blazed brightly as it picked up the tower shield.

[Royal Knight Guardian - Level 43]

Klyn and Nori both rushed at the the knight, Klyn going for the front while Nori raced behind. Swinging his sword, Klyn aimed for the Knights torso while Nori jumped up and slashed at the back of it's neck.

Raising it's sword behind it's back the guardian blocked Nori's attack before shoving the tower shield towards Klyn, blocking the attack while simultaneously sending Klyn flying towards the wall of lava.

Shizuka quickly summoned a wall of ice to stop Klyn from getting incinerated. The ice wall was quickly melting but it was enough to save Klyn's life. As he slammed into it he coughed up some blood, a green glow quickly enveloped him as Lusha started to heal Klyn.

'We need to get that shield away from him.' Shizuka thought as she reached her hands out.

Large ice hands erupted out of the ground, grabbing the sides of the guardian's tower shield as she tried to pry the shield out of it's grip. Rising it's sword into the air, the guardian slashed at the ice arms, shattering them.

"Try that again Shizu! I'll stop his attack!" Nori shouted out.

Nodding, Shizuka summoned more ice hands as she once again attempted to pry the shield out of it's grip.

The guardians red eyes flared in irritation as it went to crush the hands once again. However this time Nori parried the blow, redirecting it to the ground.

Pulling hard, Shizuka managed to get the grip to loosen, but couldn't get it out of the guardian's hands. Klyn rushed forward and smashed his sword into the inside of the shield, finally forcing the guardian to let go. Shizuka made a motion with her hands as she threw the tower shield away. Flying across the arena, the shield hit the wall of lava and melted.

The guardian's eyes blazed in anger as it looked at Shizuka, blocking Nori's follow up attack, it started to run towards her. Seeing this Shizuka summoned a spear made of ice, making it as hard as she could, reinforcing it with her shadow magic. Normally she would create her swords, but with her movements being sluggish, having a spear would be best so she could keep her distance as much as possible.

As the guardian swung it's sword towards her, Shizuka redirected the blow away, wincing from the heat the blade emanated. After redirecting the blow away, Shizuka backed away from the guardian. Glancing over, Lusha had also managed to put some distance between them.

Seeing an opening, Klyn rushed behind the guardian, swinging his sword towards it's waist.

*CLANG*

The sword bounced off the guardian's armor.

Quickly backing up the party made distance between them and the knight.

Shizuka quickly looked over the knight, looking for any gaps in the armor. Unfortunately she couldn't spot any... If Klyn's attack, who had the highest STR in the party, bounced off it... That meant they couldn't damage it at all.

The party looked at the guardian in despair. None of them were level 40, so they couldn't equip any of the weapons or armor they had received so far. The equipment they DID have was below level 20. Thinking about it, it was a miracle they had been able to kill everything so far.

Shizuka looked at her remaining mana, she would have to try freezing the knight solid as well. Luckily she still had almost 3/4 of her mana left. Raising her hands she sent beams of ice flying towards the guardian.

Raising it's sword, the guardian blocked the attack. The heat the blade emitted was enough to melt the ice as soon as the ice hit it. However it did push the guardian back. With a grin, Shizuka got an idea and increased the intensity. If the shield could melt... maybe the guardian could too!

The guardian's eyes darted around in panic at it noticed the wall of lava getting closer. It's eyes flared as it pushed against the beams of magic, trying to stop itself from being pushed back.

Seeing the progress slow, Klyn and Nori started using their swords as clubs as they beat the guardian back into the wall of lava.

There was a screaming sound as the back of the guardian made contact with the wall of lava, starting to melt it. Soon all that remained of the guardian was a puddle of melted armor and a rather large sword.

*DING*

Shizuka looked at her system to see that she had leveled up. Looking around she was more than happy to see that the walls of lava were dissipating, allowing her passive to work again. Collapsing to her knees, Shizuka laid down on her back taking deep breaths.

After catching her breath, Shizuka sat up and looked at the party coming over. They had already collected the loot from the mini-boss. On top of that, all three of them had reached level 40.

Pulling up her system, Shizuka distributed her stats. Unfortunately she hadn't hit level 40 yet, but at least now the other three could equip some gear.

[ Name: Shizuka

Race: Snow Girl

Titles: Beginner Monster (3/10 Humans killed, +10% all Stats), Path Finder: +50% Points per level

Level: 38 -> 39

Class: Snow Specter, Enslaved

HP: 3,739/5,400

MP: 560/9,300

VIT: 130 -> 160 + 20 (216)

STR: 150 + 20 (204)

INT: 290 + 20 (372)

DEX: 100 + 20 (144)

AGI: 150 +20 (204)

MDEF: 300

PDEF: 200

Unassigned Points: 30 -> 0

(): Finalized stats after factoring in equipment, titles and buffs (Rounded down).

Effects: +10% All Stats, Fire and Heat Resistance +30%

Skills:

Tier 2 Ice Magic, Tier 2 Shadow Magic, Shadow Dispersion, Shadow Travel, Frosty Aura (Passive)

Equipment: Lava Queen's Gown (Purple), Fire Resistance Ring (Blue)]

Walking over the other three looked a bit on the tired side.

"Well here is what the guardian dropped." Nori said as she pulled some items out of her inventory.

Remembering she had collected items from the Lava Knights, Shizuka also pulled those out of her inventory so they could take a look at everything. Over all they got quite a haul, including an entire armor set.

[Molten Scrap Metal x450]

[Black Metal Ore x50]

[Broken Molten Sword x35]

[Lava Crystal x10]

[Lava Guard Shield (Blue)]

[Lava Knight Cuirass (Blue)]

[Lava Knight Greaves (Blue)]

[Lava Knight Helmet (Blue)]

[Lava Knight Bracers (Blue)]

[Lava Knight Gauntlets (Blue)]

[Lava Knight Boots (Blue)]

Looking closer at the shield, Shizuka took a look at it's stats.

[Lava Guard Shield (Blue) - Level 40

+150 VIT

+500 PDEF

+350 MDEF

+70% Damage Mitigation on Successful Block

Skill: Lava Guard (Passive) - Immune to any fire attack if successfully blocked.

Duration: N/A

Cooldown: N/A]

The shield looked like it would be really good, however it was a smaller version of the guardian's tower shield. It was almost the same size as Klyn, which meant it was taller than she was... more like a wall than a shield to her.

Looking at the armor set, the system gave her an option to see the stats of the set as a whole, which she happily agreed to.

[Lava Knight Armor Set (Blue) - Level 40

+150 STR

+75 VIT

+75 AGI

+30% Fire Resistance

+1000 PDEF

+400 MDEF

Skills:

Lava Knight's Aura - Your body radiates heat as your STR and movement speed increase. +50% STR, +50% AGI, +30% Movement Speed

Duration: 5 Minutes

Cooldown: 10 Minutes

Lava Knight's Guard - You protect yourself from an incoming attack, increasing your defense. +50% PDEF and MDEF, -40% Movement Speed

Duration: 30 Seconds

Cooldown: 2 Minutes

Set Bonus 6/6: +30% VIT and STR, +2500 HP]

Taking a look at the armor it also looked like an exact replica of what the guardian wore.

"If nobody minds, I'll use this armor set. It's not tailored exactly to my fight style but it's better than nothing." Nori said.

After everyone agreed, Nori grabbed the armor set. "Uhm, Shizu could you... do the shadow thing...?"

Nodding, Shizuka waved her hand and created a small dressing room out of ice, incorporating shadows into it so nobody could see through it.

"Thanks!" Nori said as she walked into it.

Pulling out the previous armor set they had received from the lava golems and the first guardian, Shizuka shoved it in front of Klyn, creating a dressing room for him as well. After giving Shizuka a smile he grabbed the armor and went to change.

"That just leaves the shield." Lusha said, storing the materials away in her inventory.

[We should give it to Klyn, he's taking most of the risk at the moment after all.] Shizuka wrote.

"Agreed, in this dungeon it could save his life. Being immune to fire while blocking is pretty good here." Lusha replied as she put the Lava Queen's Robe over her dress.

After Nori and Klyn finished changing, Shizuka dismissed the changing rooms.

Apparently the armor would change its size to fit the users body. Nori was covered in sleek black plate armor, etched with red flames around the edges. She had her Magma Razor dagger strapped behind her waist.

Klyn had the opposite effect, instead of smooth and sleek, his armor looked like it was chiseled out of a piece of lava rock. The black surface was bumpy and had red lines going through it, spreading in random directions. He had the Magma Cleaver strapped onto his back with the tower shield on top of that.

Shizuka couldn't wait to get an armor set for herself, they both looked really cool.

Curiously though, neither of them wore the helmets.

[Where's the helmets?] Shizuka asked.

"Oh when you wear a helmet it has a function to turn into something else when you don't need it on. Always wearing a helmet can be quite annoying after all. I changed mine into an earring." Nori said as she showed Shizuka an earring in her left ear. Tapping it Nori changed it into the full visor helmet it was before, then changed it back.

Looking at Klyn, he pointed to a collar he had on his neck.

"Anyways, let's take a minute to breath and replenish our stats again before we move on. Now that Nori, Klyn and I can equip some gear the next floor should be a lot easier." Lusha said.

Creating a few chairs made out of ice, Shizuka and the others sat down.

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