Illusion after Illusion

[ Narrator's POV ]

Doyle looked closely at the red-colored name that popped in his line of sight. The name icon appeared right above the large cat's head.

[ Útgarða-Loki's Cat ]

"Loki...?"

Doyle's brain began scavaging, looking for how Loki played a role in any of this. However, the giant cat didn't give Doyle the time he needed- immediately jumping toward him with its sharp claws.

Doyle quickly touched the ground whispering the words "[ Delay Magic: Waterway ].

As the cat clawed at Doyle's body, it was surprised to see that Doyle's body had disappeared, turning into dark smoke, which was completely different from the first time when it attacked Doyle. After landing in the spot where Doyle's decoy once was, a blue magic circle inclined with gray patterns lit up right under it's feet. The cat was quick to see this and jumped up onto the walls. It's long claws embedded itself into the walls and it allowed the cat to be able to stick to the wall.

The magic circle that was on the ground began to widen, and grew to the size of the room touching all corners. Once it reached the rooms floor full capacity, the magic circle dispersed and the room began to be flooded by water. The water grew up to 9 feet inside the room, and the cat climbed higher on the walls since it didn't want to be caught up in it.

Doyle was also on the wall, though the cat hadn't noticed him yet due to his invisibility. He had used a gravitational control spell, which allowed him to stand on the wall without issue, he could have instead used the flight spell to get above the water but this way was much more effective for his next set of plans.

Doyle saw that the cat was focused on staying away from the water and took advantage of this opening. He zoomed toward the cat as stealthy as he could and equipped his katana from out of his inventory. After this he moved with precise movements and stabbed one of the cat's paws, this made the cat lift one of its legs off of the wall.

[ Útgarða-Loki's Cat lost -10 HP ]

The large cat couldn't see Doyle but it could sense him slightly due to their distance. It then attacked with its injured paw, however, Doyle didn't take any form of damage due to the Six Eyes, Doyle then stabbed another of the cat's paws.

[ Útgarða-Loki's Cat lost -10 HP ]

This made the cat lose its proper balance and the cat fell into the water making a big splash.

Doyle smiled internally. "And now [ Maximize Magic: Thunder Downpour ]!"

Doyle raised his arms and a large yellow magic circle appeared over the water that the cat was engulfed in. Seconds later large pillars of thunder plunged into the water, this gave the water an electrifying effect.

"Roaahhhh" the cat roared.

[ Útgarða-Loki's Cat lost -60 HP ]

[ Útgarða-Loki's Cat has been paralyzed! ]

Doyle then stopped the ongoing water spell, and the water slowly began to disappear. He then dropped off the wall and began walking toward the cat, the cat was laid out on the ground twitching. As soon as Doyle got within 7 feet away a blackish aura began to leak from the cat's body.

Doyle stopped and jumped back immediately. He already knew what was happening due to his experience in dungeon clearing. Back then, he made sure to get experienced in what would happen and what he would need to do during dungeons.

"The second phase... I'll try and finish this quickly." he said in a confident tone. Arrogance leaked out of this sentence, mostly because once a boss monster reaches its second stage it was certain that the monster was left with 50% or even less Hp. This tactic was to throw off players with a new chain of combos from the boss and also to make it much harder to finish off. However, for Doyle, this was only good news to him.

The cat began to grow, the body and leg muscles grew and tightened making it look more imposing. Its fangs extended and became much longer than before. Shortly after this, the cat began to climb onto its feet.

Doyle watched closely as the cat got onto its feet. As the cat got up, it looked toward Doyle, its cat-like eyes with the slits in the middle were gone, now its eyes were completely black.

"Alright then let's do this..." said Doyle as he took a couple of steps back then blending into the rest of the room.

Though Doyle went invisible, the cat didn't move an inch from its location. This was because it was focusing all of its other senses to determine where Doyle was. It stood as still as a statue.

"Hey..". Doyle's voice whispered in the cat's right ear, this made the cat instantly twist its massive body, clawing directly at the spot the voice sounded from. However, as soon as it attacked Doyle's voice could be heard giggling on the opposite side of where the cat had attacked.

"You fell for it, [ Extend Magic: Crack In The Ground ]!" Doyle yelled. Not even a second later the ground split open, creating a fissure that gripped the cat's limbs entrapping it in that one spot. The broken rocks from the ground clung together, holding the cat in its position.

The large cat struggled to try to get out of this trap however it was no use. It looked up and saw that Doyle, who was directly in front of it, was casually walking up towards it. After a few more attempts to try and escape the bind, the cat lifted its head once more looking directly at Doyle. After that, it opened its mouth revealing its large fangs, in its mouth was a black ball- it was continuously growing bigger and bigger. As the ball got as dense as the cat could hold, the ball changed from black to a pure white ball- seconds later it shot a radiant white beam directly towards Doyle.

Meanwhile, Doyle didn't even flinch seeing this occur, he continued to casually walk toward the cat. The white beam engulfed Doyle yet the attack hadn't even touched him yet. The six eyes were in full effect and Doyle was embracing it. Doyle kept his same walking pace, not speeding up not slowing down. At this moment, Doyle was in control and the cat could do nothing about it.

He finally made it within arms reach of the cat, and the cat was still blasting its beam, which Doyle was standing in. Doyle reached out his arm and opened his hand, and after a couple of seconds, he started laughing loudly like a villain of a show while chanting.

"[ Maximize Magic: Vermilion Nova ]!"

A magic circle appeared in front of Doyle's hand and glowed then a pillar beam of black flames gushed out of it, firing at the cat at point-blank range. The black flames penetrated through the white beam that the cat was currently spewing out and hit the cat. This spell was great against a single foe and since he had the chance Doyle decided to use it. The spell, [ Vermilion Nova ] was a powerful 9th tier fire attack, upon making contact with the enemy it does tremendous damage, however, additionally it also had an 100% chance to burn the enemy resulting in it taking chunks of the enemies Hp even after the initial attack was over.

[ Útgarða-Loki's Cat has been defeated! ]

Doyle watched as the cat did its dying animation, however, that never happened- the cat was in fact an illusion, just like the mobs Doyle had fought coming here.

"What the fuck?"

[ Doyle's POV ]

What the hell? This makes no sense. This was an illusion this whole time? Is that why "Loki" was in the cat's name? From what I know about Loki, he was a 'God of Tricks' so if he did have something to do with this I wouldn't be surprised. However, what's throwing me off is the other name that was in the cat's name, "Útgarða". I have no idea who that is, not have I heard of him in my last life.

Still... For me to be fooled by an illusion after all this time. I'm usually quick to know if something is related to illusions since it's my specialty. I'm experienced in illusions so I rarely have a tough time against them, however, this fooled me hard. I guess that's why it's an Advancement Class Quest for an illusion class...

*Creak!*

I looked over toward where I heard the creaking sound and saw that the door that was behind the cat when I enter this castle was now opening up on its own. The door moved slowly, like an ancient door from old times, I could see the dust fall from the opening of the large door.

I guess I'll worry about the lore behind this quest in my free time, for now, I still have more to do. I walked towards the door and entered.

***

This castle is big, it took me some time just to get to where I am right now. Along the way, I met more of those illusion giants which I disposed of easily the only issue I was having was that this castle is a huge maze.

I tried walking through the walls of the maze using my ghostly body however that just made me even more confused about where I was. It was like each time I walked through a wall the maze was change itself, making me move even further from where I was trying to go.

In the end, I used a spell called [ Lead of Yatagarasu ] to guide me throughout the maze properly, without any of the tricks I would usually do to speedrun a dungeon. This spell created a three-legged crow that guided me along the shortest path to the heart of the dungeon- or more specifically the boss room.

Now back to the present, I am standing in front of that said boss room. To be honest, I hope there isn't a boss inside of here, I mean I literally just fought a boss, well it was an illusion but it was also a boss in my opinion. So I'd rather not have to fight another one, since it's not easy coming up with strategies against them- especially with this specific dungeon. This whole place just makes me uneasy.

I put my hands on the huge double doors and pushed them open. Unfortunately what greeted me when I entered was a red name icon, indicating that there was indeed a boss inside. I looked closely at the name icon and read it.

[ King of the Giants, Útgarða-Loki ]

...You have to be kidding me. In front of me was an enormous giant- much bigger than the other giants I have faced. It was sitting in an arrogant position on a giant throne. The giant was a bluish-white color with slight white fur on its arms and body. It had long large horns that curled upwards, and he had a white beard that matched the color of its fur.

As he stared at me while still sitting in his arrogant position I began trying to find a strategy for how I would beat this guy. First of all, this guy's size is massive, it is on a whole nother level compared to the other giants. Then there's the fact that all the other monsters have been illusions, which he is probably the cause of. I have to be wary of the fact that maybe he can use illusion magic as well.

Thirdly-

*Boom!*

The giant snapped me outta my thoughts with his movement. He grabbed an ax that was big enough for him to hold from on the side of his throne and slammed the tip of it on the ground. This caused the whole room and possibly the whole dungeon to shake, which reminded me of an earthquake.

After that, he began moving to a comfortable position for him to stand up. As soon as he stood up on his feet he roared. As he roared, I could see the snow crystals that were on his white beard fly off and onto the ground.

You know what, fuck a plan, I know what I'm going to do. I quickly equipped my katana. This is a full-proof plan that was constantly used in my last life. Gamers we're hated for doing it, but it always got the job done. This plan was called spamming!

As soon as the giant began running towards me I moved my sword to the side of me like I was about to a quick draw- similar to samurai. Shortly after I swung my sword in a horizontal movement casting the spell [ World Break ]. As soon as I swung my sword, a sword opening appeared in front of me, as I had just cut through reality and space. Inside of the opening, I could see stars and possibly other galaxies- of course, this wasn't real and was only a visual effect in the game. However, as I looked at this, I could only imagine what this would do in the new world... I mean could I possibly travel outside of the New world to another galaxy or even further than that?

"ARGHHHH!"

The screams of agony from the giant brought me back to reality. He was on his knee holding onto his stomach which I had cut very deeply into. I smiled internally. "Oh? Your hurt? This is only the beginning! Haha!". I began swinging my sword continuously nonstop.

[ World Break ]

[ World Break ]

[ World Break ]

...

I could continuously use this powerful attack because of the other use of my Six Eyes. As I stated before, the item was made to be a defensive item with "Support" abilities. The support abilities obviously played a role in my mana consumption. You see, the Six Eyes provides the user with vast perception and immense brain processing power, allowing them to precisely manipulate the sophisticated powers down to an atomic level. It processes the user's magic energy incredibly efficiently. So much so that the amount of magic energy lost when the user activates a magic spell is infinitesimally close to zero. Due to this, a player with the Six Eyes will never truly run out of mana.

I continued to spam the World Break skill until I finally saw what I wanted to see.

[ Útgarða-Loki has been defeated ]

Unexpectedly, this boss also never did its dying animation. Instead, it faded away into black smoke, just like the other illusions. I stared at the spot where the Giant was previously in shock. What the hell is this? What the hell is going on in this place? I looked around trying to determine if there was another boss room that I had to enter or something however nothing was there- this indeed was the real boss room.

*Clap-Clap*

I reflexively turned to where the clapping was coming from only to see a familiar old wizard.

"That was a very entertaining fight, young lad."

"Y-you are…"