~ Chapter 36: The Dankyunator 3000 ~

[Illsyore’s point of view]

Upon returning to the second floor, I found Dankyun standing still in front of the maze and waiting patiently for the return of his commanders, now either dead or walking away from my dungeon. He didn’t move an inch from when he ordered everyone to scatter and find the exit. Whatever was left of his force was either here with him, dead, or lost among traps and imps.

If I were to consider Zarus’ words, then none of these soldiers was loyal to Ayuseya or even took into consideration the possibility of switching to her side. My mind was telling me that the possibility of them hiding their true loyalty existed. It was slim but there, however, I had neither the time or means to pick them out and question them. There was no ‘lie detection’ skill in my list.

That being said, my only question now was what could I use to force Dankyun to deplete his Spell Crystals? The best part was that I had the opportunity to launch a surprise attack on him. Unless I made a loud noise, he couldn’t detect me. Flying around for a bit, I tried to think of some good strategies against him, however, I couldn’t make the mistake of underestimating him. The Emperor Rank Commanders could be considered incredibly weak when compared to him. Even Nanya, who was a Godlike in sealed form, couldn’t do anything against him.

The idea of creating a powerful AGLMC laser to point directly at him did cross my mind, but I had to be careful how I installed it there, since there was no guarantee that he wouldn’t just waltz inside the maze while I was building it. Taunting him was a possibility, but I had the advantage of a surprise attack. Wasting it on something like a troll remark would have been very wasteful.

After a quick inner debate, I decided to give it a try and see if I can hit Dankyun in the back with a AGLMC laser. I flew over to the other side of the corridor and using [Create a Room], I made a hidden compartment there about 3 meters long and with a 1 meter height. The walls between that room and the corridor were kept intact. I flew inside and then summoned the Power Crystals required to build it. It took me about a quarter of an hour to finish it, but neither Dankyun or his soldiers noticed that something was happening behind the wall. I made sure to be a very stealthy little rabbit.

When it was done, I charged it up and aimed it at the draconian. All I had to do now was wait until my Magic Energy was back to full and then activate it, but before that, seeing as how this was going to be a prolonged battle because of his stupid crystals, I flew back to my body to make some extra preparations.

First of all, I headed back to my crystal body. There, I saw Ayuseya doing some basic stretching exercises. The way she pushed out her chest was rather attractive, but I wasn’t there to ogle at her. As for the cute Nanya, she was sitting down in a lotus position not that far away from my body. Her eyes were closed and a purple hue surrounded her like an aura of some sort. The long, pointy, black scaled tail was resting in her lap, while the red ribbon was emanating a dangerous looking black aura.

I understood in that moment that she was still working on unleashing her true self. Without further ado, I released Shanteya from my Inner Mind.

“Shanteya! You are back!” said Ayuseya surprised as soon as she saw the el’doraw appear next to my Crystal Body.

“Yes. It was a good hunt.” she replied with a smile and a nod of her head.

“Most of Dankyun’s force has been wiped out, now the only thing left to deal with is that grumpy Supreme.” I said.

“So this is the final battle?” asked the draconian princess clenching the fabric of her dress at her chest.

“Yes. Are you scared?” I asked.

“A bit, but I trust that you will do everything you can to defeat him.” she told me with a smile.

“Yup!” I nodded and showed her a smile.

“What are your plans now, Master?” asked Shanteya.

“I’ll charge my auras and then go for the attack. Wish me luck!” I told them.

“May the gods be with you.” Shanteya bowed her head before me.

“Good luck, Illsy.” Ayuseya showed me a small smile.

I charged my Magic Armor with 4000 Magic Energy points for that extra little protection, just in case. After I regenerated, I poured the same quantity into my [Divine Aura]. It affected only the Divine Damage Aura, which spread for a 5 meters radius around me. Although the area was small, that was my last form of defense. With all those lasers in my room, Nanya, and my spells, I highly doubted he could reach my core, but something told me I had to prepare for the worst. I did this about four times before flying back to Dankyun.

Surprisingly, he didn’t budge an inch from his spot. Holding his sword and glaring at the maze, I could only wonder how he didn’t get bored until now. Maybe he still believed that his commanders were alive. Technically, none of the soldiers who fled from him would dare to cross his path. Those spared by me were hiding not that far away from here, awaiting the moment the commander entered the maze. Looking back at the slippery oil on the walls of the pit leading down to this level made me wonder just how exactly they planned on getting up there. Well, it wasn’t my problem to worry about it, so I focused on the matter at hand: killing Dankyun.

This is it… I thought as I flew to the back wall and removed a small portion of the wall between my AGLMC Laser and him.

“What the?” said one of the soldiers when they noticed the missing piece.

I didn’t wait for Dankyun to turn around and fired the weapon at him. A powerful beam of light struck him in the back, quickly depleting his Magic Energy armor. He jumped to the left, and I aimed the laser towards him, but the draconian picked up one of his soldiers by the neck and tossed him towards me.

“AAH!” screamed the man as he encountered the focused beam of light.

It shattered his Magic Armor in the blink of an eye and then burned through his body and armor like it was nothing. The Master Ranked soldier didn’t stand a chance against my powerful AGLMC Laser, however, Dankyun could take more than one shot apparently.

The draconian dashed towards me, and with one single slash of his sword, he cut the Laser in half, destroying it.

“Pathetic! Is that all you can do, Dungeon Lord?” he asked with a cocky smile on his face.

I didn’t reply. I pretended like I wasn’t there or have fled, but I was actually standing right next to him, looking into his eyes, which were unable to see me. Like a ghost, I flew up through the shaft leading to the first floor and then focused on a spell.

Setting Dankyun as the only target, I infused a [Seeker Fireball X18] with 3000 Magic Energy points and then with a low voice, I whispered: “Zir Navian Esy.”

The spell unleashed 18 fireballs to chase after the draconian like hungry wolves chasing down an injured lamb. Surprisingly, they were much smaller and faster than I initially anticipated. They reached higher temperatures too. As for why it was so, I had no idea, but my first guess was the change in environment. Maybe the weird dungeon system identified the location I was about to fight in and immediately adjusted the spells to suit my needs

The first fireball took Dankyun by surprise and exploded right in his back, sending him flying forwards into the maze. He stumbled right into a trap, which raised its spikes and lifted him up. His Magic Armor was ridiculously strong, but thankfully, he didn’t had time to recover before another fireball struck him, exploding just a few inches from his face.

“Argh!” he groaned as he was sent flying backwards right into a wall.

The wall bent outward and the next two fireballs struck him. He gasped, but he was still alive. Another fireball was about to hit him, but he rolled to the left and avoided the impact. An arrow trap triggered, sending its dangerous projectiles at him, but it still didn’t shatter his armor.

Nanya was right… The difference in Magic Armor between a Supreme Rank and an Emperor Rank is ridiculous! I thought as I saw him take out his sword and slash in half the next fireball that was about to hit.

He dodged the next one, but the wall it hit ended up half melted. The other 12 followed next, but since he didn’t have a lot of moving space, three hit, four were cut, and the rest missed, damaging the walls of my maze.

The smoke was also rather thick, making it hard to see and probably breath as well, seeing how behind me, the Master Ranked soldiers who stayed with him were coughing their lungs out.

“Replenish Magic Energy.” Dankyun said, and I saw a blue light flashing from the thick smoke.

“So? How’s it going, dog breath?” I asked with a smirk.

“Hmph! Petty insults don’t affect me with anything, you cowardly Dungeon Lord!” he retorted as he pointed his sword in the direction of my voice, but I flew to the right, in the other corridor.

“Wrong way, hotshot! Shellur Sou Yar!” I told him and then cast [Explosive Jagged Ice Spear X4] infused with 500 Magic Energy Points, sending 40 such Ice Spears hurling at him.

By the time he turned around, two of them were close enough to detonate, skewering his Magic Armor with ice needles, but none could pass through. The others, he tried to dodge, but in such small corridors for him, it was hard. He nearly hit the ceiling, and when backing away, he stumbled into another spike trap. My luck was with that one, since it made him lose his balance and ten of my spears were able to hit him and explode at close proximity, but no groan from him meant they were rather ineffective. His Magic Armor was still up.

Using his sword, he blocked two of them and then dodged the rest with a jump to the left. An imp tried to attack him, but Dankyun ignored him and simply stepped on the monster. One of my spears killed the imp by accident, and six of them hit the nearby walls and floors.

While this happened, I flew ahead of him and cast a couple of traps in his way. One was a fire trap that blocked his vision for a moment, allowing me to raise a wall in front of him. He stumbled into it and allowed another ten spears to hit him. As for the others, he managed to avoid them by casting [Wind Blow] and sending them into the nearby walls.

“Annoying as an imp.” he grumbled and then slashed the wall I made.

“Not as annoying as you, poop face.” I said, but I was getting the feeling that my insults were turning from Lame to Lamer.

“Why are you even bothering resisting, Dungeon Lord?” he asked as he calmly walked through the maze, slashing my traps and monsters with ease.

“Because donuts!” I replied to him.

OK! I admit. That was stupid… I thought and sighed.

“What?” he asked raising an eyebrow.

Guess he never heard of donuts.

I followed him through the dungeon, resting and adding more traps ahead of him while I waited for my Magic Energy to be restored. I was counting the seconds in my head. As soon as I was ready, I released another torrent of Fireballs and Ice Spikes on him. It didn’t kill him, but it did make him angry, forcing him to growl and slash at the walls and floor.

I suspected the reason he wasn’t using his spells was because there was no target for him to aim at. The monsters were too weak for his stats, so they were killed off with a single strike of his sword, or with a punch to the face. What was the problem was that insane Magic Armor of his. It never reached shattering point. Instead finishing up quickly, this ended up being a battle of attrition, in which my main objective was to try to force him to use his trump cards and Spell Crystals before he reached my core.

Watching him carefully, I realized that a 3000 Magic Energy [Seeker Fireball X18] was enough to lower his Magic Armor considerably, maybe even shatter it, but I never managed to hit him with all 18 Fireballs, at most, I could only pitch in eight of them. Those were enough just to hinder him and force him to use a Magic Energy crystal.

Thinking back at the battle at the dormitory, when I attacked him, I didn’t use such a powerful version of the [Seeker Fireball X18] spell before, only weaker versions he was able to deflect or destroy with great ease. Their current size as well as the constant obstacles in his way made it easier for me to get a hit on him unlike before when he could move to his heart’s desire.

“Aren’t you getting tired of this yet?” Dankyun asked after he slashed one of my trolling wall messages, which weren’t very effective on him.

“Not really.” I replied and then cast another spell aimed at him.

For most of the time, he saw me only as a nuisance, however, I still managed to get him to use his Spell Crystals, which was the important part. After all, if he could easily regenerate his Magic Energy and heal his wounds with those things, then I had to make sure he wasn’t going to have too many of them or none at all before he entered my most dangerous part of the dungeon, meaning floors three and four. As for this floor, I saw no reason to spare the walls or try to make him go mad by letting him wander off when he was able to easily slice his way through the obstacles ahead.

Actually, that was exactly what he was doing every time he found himself going in circles. He lifted his sword up in front of a wall and then cut through it. I played a few pranks on him when he did that. Once, I added hot, molten lava behind the wall right when he added the final cut, leading to all of it pouring down on him. This forced him to jump back before his Magic Armor took too much damage from it. That exact moment was also when I attacked him with another [Seeker Fireball X18] attack.

One time, I nearly got it to shatter, but he replenished it at the very last moment. With all due honesty, I felt like I was going against a cheating character. Then again, I was one myself. Given my age and experience in this world, I was a bit too young to be fighting against the likes of him. I wasn’t even one year old!

If only I had [Infernal Glacier X60]! I thought after my last attack failed again.

One thing I noticed though was that the math didn’t add up when it came to his Magic Armor.

Making a simple analogy, if one fireball did 10 points damage, and his Magic Armor was 200 points, then did this mean that one [Infernal Glacier] spear did only 2 points damage? However, the fireball was Master Rank and while the value of Magic Energy in each of them was different, the temperatures they reached were also different. The liquid fire was both sticky and reached high temperatures, while fireballs only exploded. Thinking about it, the explosion might have had a rather high damaging effect on his armor, but liquid fire should have had an even greater impact by being a DOT effect. It was similar to lava, damaging the Magic Armor constantly the longer it stayed on it.

It’s very hard to quantify the damage done on each spell when my only reference is the strength of his Magic Armor… I so wished I could see damage points… I grumbled in my mind.

Unfortunately, no sudden pop-up let me know that such an option existed.

The fact that he had to find three different levers just to get the next door to open annoyed him quite a bit, but after Dankyun reached the Minotaur boss room, the entire floor was pretty much in ruins. What Nanya did to it when she explored it together with the other teachers… well former teachers, didn’t even compare to the damage Dankyun cast down upon it. Then again, I was also partially to blame for the melted walls scattered all over the place.

“I have to say, I’m impressed by the complexity of your floor, Dungeon Lord. Maybe after I’m done with those wretched women, I’ll see to it if I can put a leash around your neck.” he said with a smirk after he jumped down in the final boss room.

“Yeah, good luck with that.” I said and pointed all the lasers at him.

I controlled them manually while the Minotaur advanced towards him.

Dankyun tried to dodge out of the way and then pointing his hand at the Minotaur boss, he cast a single powerful [Fireball] spell. The monster was pushed back, but it didn’t kill it. What he did next was to jump towards one of the lasers. Despite the damage taken from it, these ones were fairly weak and didn’t lower his armor very fast. When he was in front of it, he cut it in half with his sword and then moved towards the next one. Meanwhile, the Minotaur had no way of reaching him.

“Although I find your little light show amusing, it is rather pathetic when it’s up against me.

I clenched my jaw and ignored his mocking laughter.

Dankyun dodged my lasers fairly well until the last one was destroyed. With a single jump, he threw himself from the top of the wall straight towards the Minotaur. With a twist of his upper body, he moved the sharp edge of his blade and aimed it at the beast’s head. The metal sliced right through the skin, muscle, and bone from the left jaw to the right one, coming out on the other side. Blood gushed out like a fountain, and the decapitated body fell backwards with a loud thump.

The draconian landed on the ground and wiped the blood off his sword on the Minotaur’s fur. Once done, he calmly walked over to the opened trap door in the floor. At the bottom was the pit filled with poison. Since his Magic Armor was Supreme Rank, I doubted it would do anything to him, but just like before, he jumped from wall to wall to carefully land on the ground and not in the pool of poison.

In that moment, I charged up another [Seeker Fireball X18] with 3000 Magic Energy and let it fly at him. I ordered one of those fireballs to drop right into the pool of poison to partially turn it into a cloud. If his Magic Armor weakened enough, then the poison could slip through.

There was another reason I launched it now. Dankyun didn’t know, but the next floor was the Lava floor, and it started with a path of enchanted spike traps. With a bit of luck, these fireballs would push him into the lava when his armor was at its weakest and then shatter it. That would have been the best result.

“Ugh!” he groaned when he got tossed over by the first fireball and landed right on top of a spike trap.

Three more struck him, exploding and destroying the trap under him. The resulting detonation threw him into the next one. Two more exploded upon hitting him and one in the left wall. He got tossed farther back. Another spike activated, and finally… it happened as I predicted. The last explosion was right in his face, tossing him out of the corridor and straight into the lava.

“Replenish Magic Energy! Flight!” he shouted.

“What? NO!” I went out and saw Dankyun floating above the molten lava and laughing out loud.

“Is THAT the best you got, Dungeon Lord?” he asked with a wide smirk.

“I still have more Fireballs!” I declared and forced the remaining ones to head for him.

Dankyun raised his sword and used a martial arts skill of consecutive fast strikes. All the fireballs were neutralized as soon as they entered his strike zone.

I cursed and tried the [Explosive Jagged Ice Spear X4] with proximity explosions. I put 1000 Magic Energy points into that spell, making me huff a bit from the exhaustion, but I was far from fainting.

“What’s this? Don’t tell me you know only two attacks?” he asked with a loud laugh.

More or less, yes… I thought as I flew on the other side and used [Wind Scythe] to hit him from behind. I put 500 points into it.

Dankyun flew around, cutting the ice spikes and didn’t suspect the other attack. He was hit powerfully and tossed back into the wall. I quickly used [Telekinezy] and pushed him into the lava, hoping to drown him in there.

“What an annoying little… Gak!” he said when he fell face first into the molten rock.

He made a big splash, but this strategy seemed to work so far. Without a doubt, his Magic Energy was draining fast thanks to these attacks. I knew it was only a matter of time before it would shatter and he would die.

“Clisk Ohs Es!” I shouted and [Create a Room] skill activated, creating a block of lead right on top of him.

It was 3x3x3 and 27 m3 in volume, meaning it weighed about 306.23 tons. It came down crushing on top of Dankyun with a heavy splash. The lava moved away as it made room for the lead, quickly melting it and forming a lead coffin around him. The metal boiled as it took shape, and I kept pressing with my telekinetic hand on top of him, Magic Energy depleting fast, but thanks to my regeneration it wasn’t as bad as before.

Yes! I can kill him! I can kill him! Yes! I said in my mind, not even realizing how sadistic and scary my thoughts sounded like.

From how I saw it, Dankyun had no way to escape that molten hell. Lava and lead were pouring down on top of him while my telekinetic grasp was keeping him under. There was no way he could escape. That was what I thought, that was what I believed, and somewhere inside of me an evil laughter tickled the idea of a ‘first kill’. Technically, it wouldn’t have been my first, just the first one I actually wanted to kill and destroy.

As such, the black fog was raised on my territory and huddled up around Dankyun’s coffin. Until then, it only popped up for a few seconds after I cast my spells, but then vanished rather quickly. Killing with traps was seen by me as an indirect kill and didn’t stir up the rise of the black fog. That being said, I saw Shanteya’s kills as nothing but indirect kills as well. I wasn’t the one to pull the trigger. I wasn’t the one to push them in the traps. Because of this train of thought, I still saw myself with my hands unstained of blood. Even the assassins I killed when I first came into this world, they were the same… an unfortunate result of my self defense.

Yes… kill kill KILL! that thought wasn’t mine, it was that of the darkness inside of me.

Suddenly, the molten lead began to swollen, bubbles popping here and there. My telekinetic grasp was cut and then something exploded. There was a strong light, and out of reflex, I looked away.

What the? I thought, but then I saw Dankyun breathing hard in a crater of molten lead and lava.

From the right corner of his mouth, a small trail of blood flowed slowly down his chin. The glare in his eyes told me that he wasn’t happy at all with what had just happened, but his armor was in tatters. The chest plate was cracked in multiple places and barely hung together on its leather frame. The right hand suffered from third degree burns all the way up to his elbow, most likely the first part to suffer when his Magic Armor shattered. The armor on his other hand, however, was destroyed and removed up to his shoulder, but the flesh wasn’t burned. I could see his dark-brown scales glistening in the pale light of the room.

Although I never paid attention to it, his tail was now shown as well, the tip burned, and the top armor covering it was cracked. It probably hurt a lot by the looks of it, but even after that attack, Dankyun was still alive.

This guy is worse than a cockroach! I shouted in my mind while looking at him.

“Ugh! How can…” he said and tried to get up, but slumped back on one knee. He was injured or just heavily weakened. “How can a Dungeon Lord like you have so much power?” he asked and pulled out another crystal.

“No! Shellur Sou Yar!” I shouted the incantation for [Explosive Jagged Ice Spear X4].

Twelve spears formed around me and rushed towards their target: Dankyun. He saw them and jumped back stabbing the wall with his sword and then pushing himself up. Two spikes exploded on the ground, and I saw one of the needles actually piercing his left shoulder. He wasn’t protected by his Magic Armor. I still had a chance, or so I thought…

“Full Magic Energy Restoration!” he called out, and his body was enveloped in a white aura.

That was when I knew that he had regained his strength, but instead of staying here, he rushed towards the other end of the dungeon, jumping on the walls and the pylons. Meanwhile, I could only cringe and hope he landed on top of one of my traps that tossed him back. I wanted to do more damage to him before he reached my room, to kill him, but my spells were too weak and using more Magic Energy could result in just me fainting and being unable to wake up for a few hours.

If you hear me, give me my Emperor Rank spell back! I can’t win like this! I shouted in my mind at the Darkness as I flew past Dankyun and prepared to cast [Wind Blow].

My Magic Energy pool was probably somewhere around 5000, going up with 40 points per second. Technically, in a minute or so it would finish recharging, but I didn’t want to let Dankyun simply waltz through my dungeon like that.

When he appeared at the entrance of the spiraled tunnel leading to the fourth and final level of my dungeon, I shouted “Eshun Zer!”

The wind gathered in front of me and then blew in Dankyun’s face at a maximum speed. He got pushed back and fell down into the lava, but he didn’t stay there for long. Jumping up, he grabbed the side of the wall and used his sword to push himself up towards the entrance. I used another [Wind Blow] on him, trying to get him to fall again, but he used his sword to keep himself steady as he advanced towards me until he was past me.

“Dungeon Lord, it will be a pleasure to kill you.” said Dankyun with a smirk as he took out another crystal.

“I’m not going to let you!” I told him.

“Hmph! Repair!” he ordered and his wrecked armor was restored completely.

Those crystals were starting to be annoying!

But at the very least, I was glad I attacked him early on. Doing so, I was able to make him use quite a lot of them, but in the end, if I didn’t have the confined space of my dungeon, he would have easily dodged many of my attacks. Even the lava attack was somewhat lucky from my point of view.

The tunnel with sharp blades and cooking oil drenched on the sides didn’t impress him. He used his sword to carefully climb down.

I can’t win like this… I need my Emperor Rank spell… I kept thinking while waiting for my Magic Energy to recharge.

At least these calls of mine weren’t heard by Shanteya and the others, but I was certain the Darkness could hear them. That was what I wanted to happen.

There was one spell I didn’t try so far: the elementary spell that allowed me to freely control the air in a selected area, [Gas Flow Control]. It was a simple spell, but if used properly, it could have devastating effects on a living being. This meant using it to pull Oxygen out of the environment would make him suffocate.

Unfortunately, the spell could work only with one specified gas at a time. Last time I used it was when I saved Shanteya, which was probably my best decision ever in regard to what I could have done at that time, especially when given what it led to. Still, it was only now when I realized a critical mistake from back then.

Maybe I wasn’t paying attention or maybe I was panicking, but I remember using [Gas Flow Control] only once, yet the spell stated that it worked with only one specified gas at a time, meaning all I did back then was to pour oxygen in an oxygen saturated area.

Crud… This means I have to use this spell for ALL the gases in this area… I can’t make a void! I thought and cursed my lack off attention to details.

Even so, I still decided to use it.

“Ayu Nan Ork.” I chanted and focused on pulling all the Oxygen away from Dankyun.

It worked and the Magic Energy was draining constantly as long as I kept focusing it around him. Nonetheless, only one gas was pulled away. For the others, I had to cast it again, further increasing my Magic Energy cost. One wasn’t a problem, but too many would have went beyond my Magic Energy Regeneration ability.

When Dankyun reached the fourth floor, he didn’t show any signs of suffocation. He actually looked fine to me.

Suddenly, he stopped and then looked around with a smirk on his face.

“Dungeon Lord, I didn’t honestly believe that you would do something like pull away the breathable air around me. You really are an idiot aren’t you?” he then laughed.

“Why isn’t this working?” I asked him a bit annoyed.

“This little spell is used only by lower ranked dungeons.” he shook his head. “But since you are an annoying fellow, I’m not going tell you how exactly I’m protecting myself from this. It wouldn’t be wise, after all!” he laughed again and continued to walk.

“Grrr!” I growled helplessly and stopped the spell.

There was no need for it now that I knew it was totally useless against him. Maybe if I used it against Master or even Emperor Ranks it would work, but this guy was prepared for most of the things I could throw at him. His experience as a dungeon explorer was as real as it could get. This whole situation was getting ridiculous! No, rather he could defend himself with relative ease against all Master and below Ranked Skills.

If I live through this, I’ll need to rethink my strategies against Supremes… I thought and flew away from him.

As I regenerated my Magic Energy, I watched him move through the maze, ignoring some traps, while destroying others. At one point he triggered or rather I activated one of my more powerful lasers. To get to it, he had to walk through a row of spike traps and fire traps. On their own, they weren’t deadly, but combined, they managed to chip away at his Magic Armor quite fast.

It was rather astonishing to see what this draconian could endure. No wonder he considered himself so great and saw everyone else as lower than him. Even I would feel somewhat conflicted if I could take a nuke to the face and come out smiling. Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to build a nuke to test it on Dankyun and even then, would I be safe of my own explosion? I feared this was one theory I didn’t want to test out.

As he stepped forward, holding his left hand up to block the beam of the laser and destroying the traps with his powerful sword, Dankyun advanced and got closer to the device. Using this opportunity, I moved behind him and concentrated my Magic Energy in a [Seeker Fireball X18] with him as the locked target. The amount of Magic Energy I could spare was around 2000. I could go for 3000, but I didn’t want to drop below 4000 and risk getting tired or lose focus all of a sudden.

“Zir Navian Esy!” I called out and let the fireballs fly towards him.

“Ha! You never do get tired, do you?” Dankyun said and looked back at the incoming projectiles.

With one hand blocking the laser, and the other holding his sword, he had only two choices as far as I could see. One meant to stand there and hope to destroy most of the incoming fireballs, and two to ignore the beam and dodge as he did before. Fortunately, he didn’t know that these fireballs were a bit weaker than the previous ones.

What he did, was to ignore the beam of the laser and jump over the first two traps. He was taking a pounding from them, but he was still standing. The first fireball exploded on the trap he jumped over. The second three exploded near him and pushed him forward, but he managed to avoid getting hit by the last set of traps.

With one swift stab, he pierced the front of the laser and destroyed it. From behind him, another four fireballs exploded on contact with his Magic Armor, sending him crushing into the wall. He groaned and pushed himself to the side to avoid the next three. They exploded upon hitting the metal surface. Seven fireballs were left, and I aimed them all at Dankyun, but instead of worry, he showed a smirk.

In the blink of an eye, the draconian used the black sword to slash all of them in half.

I watched helplessly as he was done with my attack and then calmly continued on his way. It angered me to see how weak I was, but this was only because those idiotic Dungeon egos decided to block my most powerful attack. If I had that, I wouldn’t have been using just 18 fireballs, but 60 full fledged missiles, each capable of lowering his armor by a lot. In the blink of an eye, he would have been destroyed, turned to ashes. Unfortunately, I had to struggle with a Master Rank spell he could partially neutralize.

As I waited for my Magic Energy to restore, I kept screaming in my mind at the darkness in the hope that they would realize this wasn’t a joking matter, and I needed that spell. Dankyun wasn’t a force I could mess around with. He was a full-fledged Supreme Rank Adventurer with cheats like those crystals, his sword, and even armor. If he had none of those, I would have certainly been able to defeat him more than once, but he came prepared for a long battle or maybe for war.

I had hoped he would take the corridor with the lava trap, but he avoided it at the last second. The other paths didn’t hold such dangerous traps, but the lasers were everywhere. I flew close and waited for the moment I could unleash my attack every time. My fireball attack would fly at him the moment I knew I had enough Magic Energy to use against him. Seeing how close he was getting to my Crystal Body, I was starting to feel afraid and acted a bit reckless by infusing my spell with more Magic Energy.

My strongest attack was when he reached the last corridor leading to my room. I used a 5000 Magic Energy points [Seeker Fireball X18] and then quickly rebuilt the area to steer him away.

“Ugh!” he groaned when he got hit by the first four fireballs, meaning that they packed quite the punch when compared to the others.

Realizing this, Dankyun tried to dodge and destroy as many of them as he could. Out of the 18 fireballs, only 7 managed to hit him, but they were enough to nearly shatter his Magic Armor.

“Replenish Magic Energy.” he said calmly and used the crystal.

His body was covered in that blue hue and then he placed the empty crystal back in his storage crystal.

How many of those things does he have? 99? I though as I remembered that in a typical RPG, you could usually store 99 potions in one slot, but I highly doubted it worked that way.

“Is it just me or are you getting more annoying with each passing minute?” Dankyun asked as he took a left turn in the maze.

My plan worked, and I managed to steer him away from the last corridor.

“Nah, you’re just getting lazy.” I tried to mock him, but I couldn’t hide the stress in my voice.

He smirked upon hearing me.

“You must be at your limit, Dungeon Lord! Why don’t you just give up already?” he asked as he slashed in half a spike trap.

“I told you. I want you to grow bald first.” I replied.

“Draconians in general don’t grow bald. We maintain our outward appearance for quite some time, centuries actually.” he replied with a shrug.

Great… A few centuries of Dankyun is just what this world needs… I thought sarcastically.

Honestly, there was no point in hanging around him anymore. I returned to my room and activated all the spawning circles there. Minotaurs, Imps, Harpies, and Dire Wolves appeared, each more powerful than any of those on the previous floors. I ordered them to rush into the maze and attack Dankyun.

Looking back, I saw Nanya was still concentrating on releasing her seal. The energies around her were a bit more violent now and even the floor under her had these weird lines on it like someone took a sharp blade and scratched it. The entire place was made out of Enchanted Inconel, so it was rather surprising that she was able to do that.

Shanteya was checking the dagger she took as loot from the el’doraw sister, and Ayuseya was doing some basic movement to test out the extent of her strength and speed, but without shredding her dress to pieces.

“I couldn’t stop him…” I told them in a disappointed tone of voice.

Looking over at me, Shanteya and Ayuseya immediately understood the meaning of my words. The final battle was going to take place here, and it was highly likely that they would be pulled in this battle.

“It’s alright, Illsy.” Ayuseya said with a soft smile.

“We know you did all you could, Master, it’s alright.” said Shanteya.

Hearing those words brought a sting to my heart.

I didn’t try all that I could… I didn’t… I thought and looked down.

Nanya didn’t say a word, she didn’t let my words disturb her and continued to undo her seal. I hoped that without it, she would be able to do something about Dankyun, to make a miracle happen.

Godlike my foot! I can’t even defeat one Supreme… Well, I could if I had access to my Emperor Rank spell. Can’t you all see that I’m not strong enough to defeat him without it? I thought and hoped those shadows in the back of my mind would hear me out and undo whatever they did to lock my skill, but I honestly felt like I was talking to the walls.

With a sigh, I positioned myself next to the entrance in my room an prepared the lasers. This was going to be my last battle, and I had better win, otherwise, it was off to the next life for me.

“He’s coming.” warned Shanteya.

Nanya opened her eyes and sat up, but the ribbon was still there.

“This is unfortunate…” she said clenching her fists.

“What is?” I asked.

“My seal… I needed at least another half hour at best to undo it.” she told me.

“Can’t you partially undo it?” Shanteya asked.

“I have to remove it entirely. I can force it, but it will hurt me and reduce my combat potential drastically. We have no choice though, so I’m doing that right now… I just need a minute for it.” she explained.

“Sigh… Why couldn’t I have gotten the Holy God of Luck for my allegiance?” I asked myself as I looked back towards the entrance.

As soon as Dankyun took the first step into the room, I activated all of my lasers and had them focus on that point. I didn’t waste even a single moment in doing so. These ones were far more powerful and bigger than those in the dungeon or back at the academy. The end result was Dankyun jumping back and quickly using a crystal to replenish his depleted Magic Energy.

If only I could keep him at bay like this… Still, why isn’t his mental fatigue dropping? I asked myself seeing as how throughout his journey inside my dungeon he didn’t show even one sign of getting tired.

It was like he was a machine, The Dankyunator 3000.

“Your pathetic light show is very annoying, Dungeon Lord.” he said from way back where he jumped.

“It does the trick doesn’t it?” I replied.

“Hm.” Dankyun took out three crystals and held them in his left hand.

I squinted my eyes at them, but I could recognize two as Magic Energy replenishing crystals, while the other was white with yellow stripes on it.

What’s he planning now? I asked myself.

Dankyun smirked and used some sort of skill similar to [Dash], but he moved much faster than any of the commanders or soldiers did. In the blink of an eye, he was past the entrance and charging straight at me. I reacted by activating [Telekinezy] and simply slapped him out of the way.

The draconian was sent crushing into the left wall, and my lasers immediately moved to shoot him. His Magic Armor surely received a huge amount of damage, but his pesky crystals came immediately into play.

Jumping out of the beam’s way. He landed on the floor, and with a smirk on his lips, I saw him point the white crystal at me.

“Displacement.”

And then he vanished…

“What?” I said confused.

It wasn’t only him who vanished, but Nanya, Shanteya, Ayuseya, and my own body as well. They were all gone. No, they weren’t gone… just not here.

“This can’t be! Where… Where are they?” I asked myself as I looked around and flew through the whole room.

They weren’t in my dungeon. I couldn’t feel their life force in here, but I knew they were alive at least. There were no warnings or messages to let me know that they were dead, meaning that they were somewhere on my Dungeon Territory, probably… I hoped.

No! What happened? Where are they? I asked myself as I flew up straight to the surface.

“Search for Nanya! Search for Shanteya! Search for Ayuseya!” I shouted as I hoped the weird game-like system would show me the way and reveal their locations.

A life force was detected, all of theirs, but when checking where they were, I discovered they weren’t anywhere near me, but back at the academy.

“What?” I looked with big eyes at the direction of those signals. “That can’t be right… How did they get all the way over there?” I asked myself, but there was no time to find out. I clenched my teeth and flew as fast as I could in that direction.