Rampant spells greeted me right away as [Arrow Of Time] shot like a cannonball.

  This time, I knew it was coming and side-stepped. The arrow was still impossibly fast. If I made a single mistake, it would one-shot me. And that spell would be coming every five seconds.

  Veyra wasn’t just watching from the side anymore. She entered with me, her staff held ready. “The next time it starts casting a spell, I’ll lock it in place,” she said.

  I noted that in my head, but I had no time to respond. The first thing I did was grab everything I’d lost when I died—mainly, Soul Orb Of Rathax.

  By the time I’d done that, the Time Mage’s clawed left hand already slashed at me from below, from the same angle that had blasted me into the ceiling last time.

  I blocked exactly as I had last time, but this time, The Immortal’s blade glowed bright as its effects kicked in.

  [Perfect Block!]

  A jolt shot through my arm, taking a chunk off of my stamina bar. Even with blocks amplified by 500%, the force behind the monster’s attacks was insane. Not to mention, if I missed the perfect block, I’d die instantly.

  But my feet stayed firmly on the ground, and the claws were stopped. With this, I had a chance!

  I retreated, jumping back. By then, the time mage was already casting its frost spell, preparing to freeze the floor.

  That was when a barrage of magic hit all at once. A [Ray Of Time] hit the monster’s glowing hand first. [Chronorift] followed, and the floor underneath the monster turned to a warped rift, spikes piercing it from below.

  The frozen hand blinked, then continued casting. We didn’t do enough damage to stagger it or interrupt its casting. Her spells merely slowed it down.

  Veyra wasn’t done. She summoned an [Elemental Barrier] next to the monster’s hand. A small portal appeared on the barrier. Just as the frost spell erupted, Veyra slid the barrier forward, so that the hand entered the portal.

  The frost spell erupted inside the portal, and nothing hit us.

  For good measure, Veyra summoned another [Elemental Barrier] next to the monster’s face, and she slapped it in the face with it.

  That one didn’t do any damage, but it utterly enraged the Lost Time Traveler. It dashed for Veyra with a melee attack.

  Its dash passed straight through a carpet of [Chronorift], making it stomp straight through dozens of spikes shooting out from the ground. It didn’t care, crushing straight through.

  When it got close, Veyra herself dipped into a portal and relocated, but not before shooting another icicle in its forehead.

  The monster flicked its head to me, and I counted that five seconds had just about passed. [Arrow Of Time] followed. I predicted and dodged.

  “Next up is Time Eruption!” Veyra called.

  She was right. The lost time mage immediately began casting the next ultimate.

  That was when Veyra used [Absolute Zero]. Not on the monster’s feet. It would have simply shrugged that off.

  Her frost grabbed hold of its staff, totally freezing its casting.

  “Hit it!” she called.

  I didn’t need to ask what she meant. I took two running steps, and I planted the perfect critical strike of [Curse Of The Lich] into the fucker’s neck for eight hundred thousand damage.

  The violent blast ripped its health bar to 36%. It stumbled backward. The frost in its staff broke, but time eruption was canceled.

  This time, it got truly [Staggered], stumbling on its feet and unable to attack. I quickly switched Soul Orb Of Rathax into my second weapon slot, and slid Lichfang’s dagger inside.

  [Combination De—]

  I didn’t read any of the system notifications as I planted the five thousand damage of [Curse Of Rathax] into its neck as well.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  [Critical Strike!]

  Its health dropped to 24%, and the slowing curse didn’t seem to take effect. This fucker must have been resistant to poison damage.

  It recovered, and just like last time, the sudden drop in health prompted its second ultimate attack. Its staff rattled, preparing to split into four.

  Veyra tried her best to interrupt it with [Absolute Zero] again. She enveloped its staff at the perfect timing, but the frost wasn’t powerful enough. The staff cracked straight through the frost, splitting into four anyway.

  So now my job begins. Four swords, and a teleporting maniac…

  The first sword slashed at me. I chose to dodge. I could have blocked, but a side-step placed me in the best position for the next attack, because I still had four other targets to deal with, including the teleportation spell.

  An overhead swing followed, aimed straight at the middle of my head.

  Now, I thought, lifting my new dagger for the block.

  [Perfect Block!]

  The levitating sword rebounded backward with force, as if it had been hit with a powerful blow. I grinned, seeing that the item worked perfectly as I had imagined.

  With The Immortal, I could keep up with even a level 365 monster.

  As long as I continued hitting [Perfect Blocks] without missing a single one.

  The next two swords thrust at me immediately after. Blocking that would have been awkward and ducking would have gotten me killed right after, so I rolled to the side. By then, I was approaching the corner of the small room, and the next sword was chasing me faster than I could run. I needed to reposition.

  I jumped straight against the brick stone wall.

  It would have been hilarious if I planted my face against the wall, but thankfully, a portal appeared, and I found myself in the opposite end of the room.

  A full-on workout continued from there, both for the body and mind. I danced with the swords, dodged time arrows, and just barely kept myself alive. My stamina was constantly dropping, and the only times I had to recover was when Veyra staggered it off of its attacks.

  She couldn’t fully stun-lock it. At our levels, that would have been impossible. Veyra focused on interrupting it at key moments. Thanks to her, every single instance of it attempting to cast [Time Eruption] was canceled. Same with the icy floor.

  If the floor had been slippery, this would have been impossible. Without ice, dealing with the swords was just barely possible, but I still felt like I was dancing with four top players all at once. I was frequently forced to waste [Shadow Dash] just to get out of certain death, and landing critical hits to its neck with my daggers was just about impossible.

  Good practice if nothing else! I thought through gritted teeth.

  The teleportation spell was even more annoying. I had to keep track of the time mage at all times, and if it suddenly disappeared, I knew for a fact it was behind me with its claws. I had to pray that I had [Shadow Dash] available, since dodging would be pretty much impossible, and if I blocked the claws, I would be left in a vulnerable position for the four swords to finish me off.

  But while I struggled for my life, its health bar slowly lowered. Veyra’s constant spells took it to 27%, 19%, 15%, then 12%. Most of our damage came from [Chronorift] as the monster just didn’t care about running through the rift of spikes.

  She was constantly drinking mana potions as well, clearly exhausted. How long had we been fighting for now? It felt like an hour. Really, it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes.

  Its health was at 5%, when I noticed it preparing another teleport.

  I immediately swung behind me before the teleportation had even gone off. And just as my dagger slashed, the time mage appeared in the spot I had predicted, exactly in time to be hit by my dagger.

  [Critical Strike!]

  That dropped its health to 3%. It countered with its claws. The four swords swung at my back. I could only block one.

  But I had [Shadow Dash] still available. I turned to a shadow and passed through all of the time mage’s attacks, then through its body, now behind it, where I drove [Curse Of The Lich] straight to its neck.

  Slash.

  [You slayed Lost Traveler Of Time (Level 365) with assistance from Veyra. Experience divided.]

  [You Leveled Up!]

  [You Leveled Up!]

  [You Leveled Up!]

  [You Leveled Up!]

  The four swords fell lifelessly to the ground. Spells stopped pouring in. The Lost Wanderer Of Time collapsed. The man inside the robe totally disintegrated, leaving only a pile of cloth on the ground.

  Veyra and I gasped for air, too exhausted to speak. I barely stayed on my feet.

  The first exchange between us was a wide grin, followed by a chuckle.

  “I told you!” Veyra said. “Solo hunting overleveled dungeons is the best fun this game has to offer.”

  “To be honest, that was stressful as hell,” I said.

  “But we did it,” Veyra said. “Solo together, or whatever you said.” She chuckled.

  I shared the laugh, still catching my breath. Being next to the corpse, I checked the loot drops. A candle-like wisp remained where the monster had died, indicating that it had dropped items. I moved my hand to it, and an inventory pop-up showed me the items I’d gained.

  [Time Traveler’s Boots (Rare Boots, Worn Out), Aether Wisp 1x (Rare Crafting Material), Frostfang Feather 1x (Epic Crafting Material, Quest Item)]

  “We got one. A frostfang feather.” I summoned the item to my hand. It was a small feather with a fang at the end. An odd item to drop from a random time mage, but as was often the case in MMOs, monster drops didn’t really make sense in Wonderwind.

  “And we guessed right once again,” Veyra said. “Didn’t I say they’d drop from here? I just know where these quest items drop. Now, we just need to kill more of these guys.”

  I breathed in, knowing the upcoming days would be far from easy. But I was also looking forward to clearing further. I’d never really hunted dungeons before in my life. Even the Sunken Crypts would have been way outside my skill level to clear alone, and I rarely fought with guilds these days.

  With Veyra, somehow even S-tier dungeons somehow felt plausible.

  We rested for a few minutes, and we continued deeper.

  953/1000 followers!

  20 chapters ahead on !