“I'll keep that in mind, Mr. Skeleton,” Rachel replied earnestly.
“By the way, you must be careful if you continue your descent, Mr. Skeleton.”
“About this time yesterday, the Hyena Adventurer Party passed through here, descending into the deeper floors...”
“Although they probably wouldn't stoop so low as to attack you, I still hope you'll be careful,” Rachel warned with a serious expression.
“I'll be careful. Thank you for the warning.”
Li Xiuman strapped his staff to his back, nodded to Rachel, and left the shop.
That crowd had entered the dungeon earlier than him. Since they had the advantage of numbers and experience, it was only natural that they were ahead of him.
Besides, they had already threatened to kill him.
In that case, he didn't need to hold back.
Passing through the fourteenth floor, he didn't get to enjoy the hot springs on this floor. After all, he was a skeleton, and taking off his clothes would only invite subjugation.
On the fifteenth floor, the familiar fire lizards were gone.
In their place were red, upright-walking lizardmen.
Their red scales and skin were no different from a lizard's, and their entire bodies radiated steam.
They looked like the evolved form of fire lizards.
Since they were humanoid, Li Xiuman suspected they possessed some level of intelligence, so he didn't let his guard down.
A Lv. 15 lizardman was enough to pose a threat to him.
However, these things provided quite a lot of experience.
Li Xiuman gripped his staff cautiously and approached the lizardman before him.
“Tier 1 Magic, Wind Stone Spike.”
Two layers of magic circles stacked front to back, one blue and one yellow, slowly outlining and expanding.
An earthy-yellow, spiraled stone spike slowly materialized, wrapped in a spinning vortex of wind created by Wind Magic.
This was one of the magic spells Li Xiuman had been experimenting with—a wind and earth hybrid charging spell, Wind Stone Spike.
As the wind vortex continuously spun and accelerated, the spirals on the stone spike blurred until they were no longer visible.
Only when the acceleration reached a critical point did Li Xiuman shoot the stone spike.
With a sharp tearing sound, the stone spike shot out like a rotating afterimage, stirring up an elongated vortex in the air. It pierced straight through the lizardman's skull and exploded.
[Ding! Killed fire lizardman Lv. 15. Experience +300]
An instant kill.
Li Xiuman slowly lowered his staff and pulled out a notebook from between his ribs.
This was a blank notebook Li Xiuman had obtained from Rachel.
He used it to record and improve the magic he had modified and created.
This included the Shield series, the Quagmire series, and now the hybrid magic series.
“High power, high mana cost, extremely long charging time.”
“Direction for improvement: reduce charging time and mana cost.”
Li Xiuman closed the notebook, tucked it back between his ribs, and walked toward the fire lizardman.
He drew his knife.
He sliced open the chest, extracted the magic stone, and stuffed it into his waist pouch.
Clack...
“What's that sound?”
Li Xiuman raised his head, looking around alertly.
It was dead silent, with no movement.
“An illusion?”
Li Xiuman gripped his staff tightly, stood up, and surveyed his surroundings warily.
Clack.
It wasn't an illusion.
It sounded like something cracking. Where was the noise coming from?
Li Xiuman looked around. Stone wall, stone wall, stone wall—there was absolutely no movement.
His spine trembled slightly.
This was no place to linger. Activating [Quiet Steps] and [Swiftness] simultaneously, Li Xiuman dashed to the side.
Crack!
The sound was much clearer this time.
It was coming from... underground!
Li Xiuman leaped up. The Bone Wings on his back unfurled and stabbed into the stone ceiling above.
Then, the ground ruptured.
“Roar!!!”
A fiery-red figure burst forth from the earth.
Its massive body was engulfed in burning, fiery-red flames.
A pair of long, fiery-red horns extended from its head.
It looked like a standard fire lizardman scaled up several times.
It was a Unique Variant of the lizardmen!
[Name] Lizardman King
[Level] Lv. 20
[Class] Monster Warrior
[Description] A dangerous lizardman variant, the king of lizardmen. Possesses the strongest physical body and mana among lizardmen, with extremely high fire affinity. Max Level: Lv. 20
His fiery-red eyes swept over the surroundings, locking onto Li Xiuman, who was hanging upside down from the ceiling.
“Roar!!!”
A furious roar blasted toward Li Xiuman.
Not good, not good, not good, not good, not good!
Li Xiuman's hands transformed into sharp claws as he dug them into the ceiling, scuttling deeper into the labyrinth like a giant spider.
The lizardman king raised his hand, and fireballs materialized one by one, orbiting his body.
With a wave of the lizardman king's hand, the fireballs rained down toward Li Xiuman one after another.
Li Xiuman had no choice but to jump down from the ceiling and land on the ground.
Where he had been moments ago, the fireballs exploded, sending shattered stone flying and throwing up a cloud of smoke.
Then, from within the smoke, a figure lunged toward Li Xiuman on all fours, tearing through the haze.
“Quagmire!”
He thrust his staff into the ground, sending out a wave of ripples that transformed a large area into thick mud.
The lizardman king instantly sank into it.
But in the next instant, flames erupted all over the lizard's body, instantly evaporating the moisture in the mud.
Squatting low, it leaped into the air, throwing its bloody mouth wide open.
The fire element fully charged in an instant, spewing out as a column of fire.
“Tier 1 Magic, Water Wall!”
Faced with this rushing column of fire, Water Shield was too small.
The magic circle was outlined in a split second. Streams of water surged from all directions, converging to form a wall of water before him.
Sizzle!
Steam exploded outward, filling the entire space.
Li Xiuman took the opportunity to retreat.
But a moment later, the massive figure lunged out of the steam from the side, its fire-clad claw swiping at Li Xiuman's chest.
His body flew backward, crashed against the ground, and bounced.
The lizardman king immediately gave chase, leaping into the air to trample him with both feet.
“Wind!”
Li Xiuman unleashed Wind Magic to blow himself to the side, dodging the stomp.
At the same time, his body sprang up as he smashed his staff toward the lizardman king's knee.
Thud.
With a dull thud, his staff was deflected.
“What insane defense!”
The lizardman king was on a completely different level than standard lizardmen!
It wasn't just Lv. 20; it was the king among all Lv. 20 lizardmen!
The lizard raised its foot and kicked at Li Xiuman once again.
Li Xiuman could only hold his staff horizontally to block the strike, sliding backward under the sheer force of the impact.
Watching Li Xiuman slide away, it raised its claws, firing off multiple fireballs.
“Tier 1 Magic, Water Shield!”
Li Xiuman deployed his Water Shield on his left arm, dodging the fireballs while fleeing toward a narrow corridor.
This lizardman was several times larger than the average ones, so perhaps he could lose it by taking advantage of the tight terrain.
The lizardman king pursued him relentlessly from behind.
Meanwhile, more and more lizardmen were converging toward him in the corridors.
This guy could actually command other lizardmen!
Before long, he ran headfirst into a swarm of lizardmen.
Their fiery-red scales merged together, looking like a roaring blaze blocking his path.
“Get out of my way!”
Li Xiuman charged in, using his high Constitution and equipment to plow through a path by brute force.
He swung his staff so fast it became a blur, shattering the heads of several lizardmen.
By the time he broke through the siege, his clothes were stained blood-red, and cracks had begun to crawl along some of his bones.
Some suspicious flesh and tissue even clung to his staff.
But he didn't stop, continuing to sprint through the labyrinthine corridors.
Yet, the number of lizardmen only seemed to multiply as time wore on.
No matter which way he turned, lizardmen blocked his way.
Li Xiuman had no choice but to put everything on one final gamble, slamming his staff into the ground. A massive, earthy-yellow magic circle expanded beneath his feet.
“Super Quagmire!”
In an instant, nearly a hundred lizardmen sank into the mud.
Casting magic on such a massive scale drained more than half of Li Xiuman's mana, causing the soul fire inside him to shrink a bit.
“Fly!”
Spreading his Bone Wings, Li Xiuman focused his mind like never before, directing Wind Magic toward the ground.
Flapping his wings within the narrow corridor.
By precisely controlling the wind magic, he barely managed to keep from crashing into the stone walls.
A single, minor mistake would send him smashing into the wall, plunging him straight back into the mud and the swarm of lizardmen.
Turning left and right through the passages, he almost crashed into the stone walls several times, but he forcibly corrected his trajectory using Wind Magic.
Once again, he broke through the containment.
Li Xiuman was absolutely certain that if he had to do that again, he would absolutely, positively crash into the wall.
A cliff edge appeared ahead.
Behind him were his lizardmen pursuers.
Giving him no time to hesitate, Li Xiuman dove straight off the edge.
For now, he would hide below. Once the lizardmen above had cleared out, he could fly back up.
Below the cliff, protruding stone spikes jutted out everywhere. Li Xiuman had to constantly adjust his Bone Wings to dodge them.
He didn't know how deep he had plummeted.
When he finally touched down, his surroundings were pitch-black.
He retracted his Bone Wings and raised his staff.
Injecting a small amount of mana, the magic stone at the tip glowed with a pale blue light, illuminating the area.
The rough stone walls were gone, replaced by beautiful walls of shimmering crystal.
Under the blue light, they sparkled with a dreamlike luster.
Where was this?
According to the research Li Xiuman had done on this dungeon beforehand, none of the floors were supposed to look like this.
In any case, it would be best to cautiously explore... like hell it would.
He knew his own limits, and Li Xiuman knew exactly what he was capable of.
In a bizarre place like this, the optimal strategy was to stay put and play dead until the lizardmen above left.
Yes, exactly.
Li Xiuman leaned his staff against the wall. Under the light of the magic stone, he pulled out his magic book from between his ribs and began to read.
Rate on N.U.
