Chapter - 8 Boss (2)

When I opened the door, I was greeted with a "bone" chilling eerieness... Get what I did there?

Anyway, the room was dark, and I mean very dark... I could barely see a thing, but before I could even finish that thought, candles placed at the walls of the room lit up one by one

I then realized just how big this place was when the candles lit up

Then, soon after a coffin came into view

And obviously, like every vampire movie ever, the coffin opened and came out a creature, that looked somewhat like a human

"Who dares interrupt my slumber?" The creature spoke

...

Dracula?

No, wait, focus!

Right now this guy looks like a normal human, he has fairly pale skin, blonde hair and eyes that would remind a person of the ocean

But underneath that fairly good looking face, is a very dangerous lich who's lived for thousands of years

Don't be fooled Stephen!

"Oho, humans, it has been hundreds... no, maybe a thousand years since I've seen a human, and two at that!"

"Is that...?" Linda asked "The boss?"

"Yeah... be careful" I responded warily

"Alright..." She said nervously

...

After what seemed like eternity, the silence was broken by the lich's voice

"So? Have you come to take my treasures? My core?"

"We've come to take the former" I responded calmly

Although I was confident I would be lying if I said I wasn't extremely nervous...

"Oho, it seems you have some confidence in yourself human." The lich said with a sly smile

"It's not confidence, I'm only calm because I KNOW I can beat you.."

The lich's complexion worsened, I did just provoke him after all

"Ha, let's see if you still have that confidence, WHEN YOU'RE DEAD!"

Below me, a magic circle, which appeared out of nowhere, glowed

But before it could even trigger, I had already gotten out of it's range

As I looked back at the glowing magic circle, it had just activated and now the place I was standing on previously, exploded

"It seems you can handle that, but you wouldn't provoke me if you didn't have skills, so I expected that much" The lich responded calmly

As I was about to land on the ground, magic circles appeared throughout the ground, walls and even the ceiling

At the same moment, they all exploded

"Haha, well It seems I'll have to revoke my previous notion, He was all tal-"

But before he could even finish his sentence, he looked at the place where he thought I had died, and his eyes widened with shock

Standing there, basically unharmed, except for a few scratches, was the human he had previously thought died in the explosion

"Yo- How?"

"Hah... Damn, that drains my mana quite a bit" I said with an exhausted look

How did I survive you ask? Well, did you really think I was slacking around with mana training?

I was the author for god's sake, If anyone knew how important mana truly was in this hellish world, it would be me

So even at the start of the tutorial I tried my best to practice manipulating my mana, and at first it was really taxing, but over time I got the hang of it

Sure I wasn't any of the main characters, and I'm also not very talented, but I had one thing that gave me a push at the mana thing, and that was understanding

I know I keep saying this, but I am the fucking Author. If anyone would know anything about this goddamn novel, it was me.

Anyways, I survived using the basic spell, mana shield, it creates a 3D shield around me and protects me, since I didn't have much mana I can't cast it for very long, but it does protect me quite a bit

"How did you survive that? That was a Mid rank spell, and 3 at the same time!"

"Well, Mid rank spells are quite easy to block, sure I don't have enough mana but, when you know what to do, it's quite easy" I confidently remarked

"YOU!"

"Welp, that's my que" As I said that an explosion resounded across the dungeon, and the room we were in started to tremble

"W-What?" The lich said with a confused face

But before he could even ask what was going on, a rock was thrown at his face

The lich saw it coming, obviously, but when he realized it was thrown by the human, he didn't even bother to dodge

But that proved to be a fatal mistake, due to the lich's arrogance and overconfidence, he thought he could take the thrown rock head on, little did he know it was imbued with mana

Soon it collided with his face, and as if a truck had hit him, he was pushed back, only for the rock to explode afterwards

"Guh!" The lich exclaimed

Soon the dust cleared and the lich, which had a human appearance before, had half of his face burned off from the rock explosion

"You insolent-"

Before the lich could talk, again, Mana arrows came raining down on him, not just one, not just two, but almost 30 mana arrows came down at once

An explosion resounded across the dungeon, and an sound louder than before occured

"Phew, you're late" I said to Linda as I was blocking the incoming debris with my mana shield

"You were the one who gave me vague instructions about the core" She rebutted

Yep that's right, the previous explosion was the core, before we entered the room I told Linda to go find the lich's core and destroy it while I was distracting the lich

She was skeptical as to how I knew the boss was a lich, but she was slowly getting used to my personality, which saved me a lot of time making excuses

"So did we win?" Linda asked

"Pfft... Win? With an attack like that? You're hoping for a miracle" I said mockingly

Just as she was about to say something, a groan could be heard on the other side of the room

Standing tall, a figure was glaring at us

The lich, who looked like a vampire with his pale skin, was now a skeleton

"Humans are so annoying" The lich said

This gave us goosebumps

Because skeletons didn't have vocal cords, the lich spoke with mana, which intensified his already intimidating aura

It's amazing how he survived from the bombardment of those mana arrows, a single mana arrow was like a small bomb

But I expected as much, our opponent is a lich

"Hah... well, it seems were running out of time... so, let's finish this" I said provocatively

"You're tricks won't work again human" Said the lich as he caught mana arrows shot by Linda from the side

Before the mana arrows exploded, it seemed like it was absorbed into his hands

My complexion darkened

"Petty tricks like these, won't work on me the second time" The lich said as he looked at the now absorbed arrows

Then just after he spoke, mana circles, almost 10 meters in radius, surrounded me

Just as it was about to explode, more magic circles appeared, making the radius even bigger

Looking at the situation in front of me, which seemed dire, I smirked

Just as the magic circles were about to activate, they all started to fade, and the lich, which looked so high and mighty, fell on his knees from Linda bashing his head with her bow

As I saw the scene before me, I couldn't help but smile

"Wha-" Just as the lich was about to talk, Linda stepped on his skull which crushed it, permanently killing the lich

"Hah..." Seeing this, I slumped down

To explain what just happened, due to the lich losing his core, his magic, slowly disappeared along with him, the only way he was able to use spells, was because I specifically told Linda, to shoot Mana arrows that contained almost all of her mana, at the lich

Remember the Mana arrows he absorbed? Yeah, that gave him enough mana to use those spells, and then put the pressure on me, because of that, he forgot Linda existed, the second time...

Which let her sneak up on him, and bash his head in

To be honest, it was all just a huge gamble, Now, you might think that the lich could feel the core breaking, but that's the thing that made me so confident, it's because he couldn't

Because of the rock and the mana arrows, he was preoccupied by the bombardment after the explosion, even if he did feel something, he didn't have the time to, since he had greater problems at hand

Everything I did in that fight was completely needed, even from my provocation and taunting

Also, Although the fight seemed short, It was still a boss in the tutorial

The Gods were fair, so they weakened the lich considerably, the original lich, could spam high rank spells without much backlash

If the lich wasn't killed now, the main character would be having a much harder time in the future

Just as I was thinking about the battle, Linda came up to me

"You know, I'm really curious as to how you knew the battle would turn out that way, but I'll keep my mouth shut for now" She said as she stretched her hand out

"Hah... Thanks" I replied as I took her stretched out hand

"Now what?" She asked

"What do you mean what? We reap our rewards" I said with a smile on my face

...

In a almost dark room, multiple individuals was watching the scenario happening in front of them

"What a crafty human"

"Using the lich's arrogance and pride to his advantage..."

"Don't forget the woman, what skill does she have?"

"I think that's an ability, not a skill"

"An ability that strong?! I thought this was the tutorial!"

As the unidentified being said that a person replied

"It is the tutorial"

"L-Loki"

"Ho.. Have you come to cause mischief again?"

Loki, looking hurt replied

"Oh don't say that, I was just here to see the candidates... So, how many do we have?"

"Well if that really is your only purpose, then to answer your question, as of now 3, and over 1,000,000 with potential"

"3! That's more than expected! It's also worth considering that this is only the 4th day!"

"Yes... to be honest, it surprised us a bit"

"They really are talented humans, especially this one"

As the unidentified creature said that, it pointed at one particular screen

In it, showed a handsome man, all alone in a desolate city, buildings burned around him, and the flames roared, but the man just sat there, eating something, he was indifferent to all that was happening around him

As one of the beings took a closer look

One could see eyes as dark as the night sky, and black hair that fluttered in the hot wind, the man, which was eating quietly, sensed a presence, but he didn't move from his spot, the creature, a kobold, snuck up behind the handsome man, but when he got near, it's vision was upside down for some reason...

Before it even noticed, it's head had been separated from it's body and the last thing he could see, was a man quietly eating, as if nothing happened...