Unlimited Power - The Arcane Path

Although not a single dungeon break happened in the lower world so far, Leon didn't drop his guard. Even though his luck increased a little and his plans were progressing well, Leon couldn't relax in a world where one hundred meters tall fire titans and dungeons that connected to worlds that had a god of death existed.

All the dungeons Leon encountered so far in Miebos had some kind of irregularity, despite that, the liches' dungeon spawned six monsters every ten minutes, just like the dungeons on Earth. Thanks to that, after letting himself get hit at least once by the Cursed Rays of those creatures, Leon's cursed Resistance reached level fifty in one week. Now the Cursed Rays only managed to make half of a single leg go numb.

"I guess this is enough for the time being... I don't even know if the boss of the dungeon can actually use curses." Leon said.

"Shouldn't I train that Curse Resistance too?" Darya asked.

"If you want, then go ahead," Leon said. "Although I think it would be less scary if I use the undead Trent branches and shot the Cursed Ray at you."

"Let's do that, then," Darya said. "I just have to use you as a shield to prevent that kind of attack."

Leon sighed... almost five months have passed since he met and had been working with Darya, but it looked she would never stop saying things like that. Anyway, after that, Leon and Darya entered the dungeon. This time they wouldn't have the time and the chances to attack the liches while they were unaware of them. So, they focused their chances to attack and kill the liches on the very moment they appear.

Things got a little messy when more than one lich appeared at a time. However, Leon managed to stop their Cursed Rays from hitting Darya using himself and some Earth Walls as a shield to protect her. After one week practicing her spells and thanks to Zen skill, even Darya's Earth Punches were powerful enough to kill the liches. They didn't lack in firepower, but all caution was more than welcome.

Fortunately, using Mana Dominion, Leon managed to feel the monster's presence before they could be found. Not only that, but he also felt the directions the liches were coming from. So, Leon and Darya didn't waste time in bifurcations finding dead ends. They walked almost on a straight line toward the last room of the dungeon.

Without even reaching the last room, Leon and Darya sighed in relief because they already found signs of the boss of the dungeon. In the last five hundred meters of the dungeon, they found roots covering the walls and the ground. Although the roots looked to belong to a dead tree, Leon could feel a lot of mana in it... like the mana he could feel inside the undead Trent branches.

"The boss is the undead tree that was used to create the liches wands, right?" Darya asked.

"Yeah… the pieces of evidence appoint to that." Leon nodded. "Still… this is kind of weird."

"What is weird?" Darya asked.

"Until now, we only found dungeons that had some peculiar characteristics," Leon explained. "The ordinary monsters that are spawned by the crystals, always have some relation to the bosses of the dungeon. Usually, they are the evolved forms of those monsters, sometimes that isn't the case, but in some aspects, they have a connection… However, where is the connection between an undead treant and liches aside from the wands? How did Anton obtain the information about the god of death?"

"… We should have asked for more information." Darya said. "However, I heard that trents could be used to produce wands… and holy water. Water that can be used to purify wounds, cure sickness, dispel all kinds of negative status, and even increase the lifespan of those who drink it."

"… It looks like the kind of water some suspicious individuals would sell on TV." Leon said. "However, I don't think an undead Trent would produce Holy Water… it doesn't make any sense."

"Yeah… that is why instead of Holy Water, I think this Trent is producing something like unholy water… and that is why the people of the other world became liches." Darya explained.

Leon frowned when he heard that. Still, considering that possibility and everything he noticed so far, it was very likely that was the case. Many people would sell their lives in exchange for immortality and power. That being said, it looks like they also sold their intelligence since the liches were only a few steps above the monsters in terms of tactics.

"We still have to consider the god of death…" Leon rubbed his chin. "If that isn't just a weird rumor, I think this dungeon isn't like the others… did you hear anything about a dungeon like this before?"

"No, but I don't think the researchers above would lose the chance to study a place like this if they had heard about it," Darya answered. "Maybe this dungeon evolved a few years ago, and since no village could be found nearby, the guards of the city decided to overlook this region without even noticing the liches."

"It makes some sense considering that if that is true that no village could be found here, the guards above wouldn't ask the warriors of other areas some information either." Leon nodded, "… but something feels off. It is too strange…"

"I agree… Well, it is just a hypothesis." Darya said. "What are we going to do? I must say that a monster that can be this long looks like it is way out of our league."

Darya was right, but in the end, even though Leon could feel mana in those roots, he didn't see them moving. The creature was immense, but it couldn't control all its body. Leon wanted to challenge that creature, and his will became a resolution to destroy the beast when he noticed that all roots were growing steadily every minute.