Alexia

  After ignoring the guards outside the dungeon and entering said dungeon, I find myself appearing in some sort of underground magma chamber. Where the walls of the chamber are all dripping with lava or magma or whatever it is called while underground in caverns.

  There are also lava rivers running alongside the walls and leading into the tunnels. With one entire tunnel being entirely just one river of lava.

  I’m sure the cavern is blazing hot, but I don’t really feel much thanks to my Quantum Adaptation protecting me from fire and heat.

  That said, I’m briefly surprised to find that there aren’t any monsters in the area. At all.

  But after thinking about the fact that the archfiend is in this dungeon trying to reach Ascendant Tier after reaching the level cap of Tier 5, it’s not actually that surprising. Considering that he most likely went around and killed all the monsters in the dungeon.

  I begin to traverse the dungeon, moving through the tunnels one after another. Just teleporting as far as I can see repeatedly instead of walking.

  Of course, I stay in my True Form to get energy from the Quantum Realm. All to use said energy to repeatedly teleport, raising my Quantum Displacement skill’s level.

  I’ll just return to my regular form when I find the archfiend.

  Because, despite his being a terrible tyrant and all, I kind of doubt he’s a target of the universe. So I can’t use my True Form to fight him.

  I doubt I’ll need it though.

  With that thought in mind, I continue making my way through the dungeon for hours upon hours.

  All the way until I hear a loud roar echoing throughout the tunnels coming from one direction in particular.

  So I begin moving in the direction of the roar. Since it’s the only sign of a living thing I’ve seen or heard since entering the dungeon.

  And the closer I get, the more I begin to hear loud noises. With the walls of the tunnels and caverns trembling as I go.

  All the way until I find a massive crater of what I’m guessing is a volcano. With a massive hydra-like monster at the center of it.

  The monster itself is a Cataclysm Class monster and is at the level cap of Tier 5. And it’s currently fighting against a man.

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  But the man isn’t alone and has numerous shadowy demonic creatures all around him. Each with glowing yellow eyes.

  And they’re all fighting against the massive hydra.

  The demonic creatures also seem to be made of shadowy flames. Not just regular shadows like I thought when my eyes first landed on them.

  I narrow my eyes for a second before looking at the man and identifying him.

  {Artorius del Argon – Archfiend – Level 2500}

  Yeah, thought so.

  The man himself looks visibly surprised when I identify him, no doubt sensing my identify attempt. Following which he turns to look in my direction before looking even more surprised.

  And to my surprise, he looks pleasantly surprised.

  He doesn’t look upset or anything. He straight up looks happy to see me.

  I return to my normal form as I find him to not be a target. Then I summon my polearm and glance at the boss, who is already weakened by Artorius.

  The boss itself seems to notice me. But to my surprise, instead of attacking me, the hydra creature’s eyes on each of its heads immediately widen and it lets out some sort of frightened sounding screech.

  Then I watch the thing fly away out of the crater in a panic.

  Leaving Artorius and I awkwardly floating in the crater watching it flee for its life.

  Uh… okay then.

  That just happened.

  I know a lot of monsters flee at the sight of me nowadays, but I wasn’t expecting the boss of a Tier 5 dungeon to do the same.

  Then again, all I’ve been fighting recently have been corrupted creatures. Not monsters.

  And corrupted creatures generally don’t have any intelligence at all. They just try to corrupt.

  Nothing more, nothing less.

  Except Corruptors and the Corrupted One, that is.

  I continue watching the boss flee for a few seconds before turning my attention to Artorius. At which point I see him turning his attention to me in return.

  With a wide smile on his face that is kinda creeping me out.

  Why is he smiling? I’ve heard that this guy never smiles, so why does he look so happy seeing me?

  I’ve heard something about him wanting to feel pain, but he can’t be assuming that I’d just attack him without killing him, right?

  Or does he just not care?

  The man keeps staring at me with that creepy smile. Without saying a single word at all.

  I stare back, wondering what his first words will be after seeing me. Just out of curiosity.

  But he never says anything.

  At all.

  He just keeps staring.

  And staring.

  And staring some more.

  Is he ever going to say anything?

  After a while, he eventually just attacks me. Sending his little shadow demons at me without a words.

  I snap my fingers, making bolts of quantum energy fly out and strike the shadow demons. Wiping each one out with ease.

  The archfiend looks surprised for a few seconds before his smile turns into a wide and creepier grin.

  I feel more and more confused the longer this interaction goes on, but eventually I just shrug it all off. Then I teleport right up to the archfiend and reach for his throat to crush it.

  Only for the man to blink and then frown at me after I begin gripping his throat.

  Almost like he’s disappointed.

  And without a word, he dissipates into shadows before reappearing several meters away from me.

  This battle is getting confusing. What does he even want?

  I fire off numerous quantum bolts at him. With each one slamming into his arms and sides. Tearing off parts that glitch and vanish.

  Leaving him grinning like a madman with excitement as he grunts.

  He’s starting to give me whiplash with his mood swings…

  Whatever.

  I’ll just get this over with quickly and find that boss.

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