Chapter 75 One Blow
It was obvious that the Boss monster ahead of him was not comparable to the opponents he had faced inside the two-element dungeon.
The Lava Golem, whose mana-infested magma was dripping on the ground, was evidently weaker than the two bosses he had faced there.
However, there was one major difference that made the Lava golem as dangerous as the other bosses.
It's entire body was made out of lava and Nial quickly realized that even approaching it was extremely difficult because the searing heat around the beast would slowly burn him.
Facing the lava golem was quite tricky and the moment his skin was to touch the body, he would turn to a pile of ash and charred bones, or so he presumed.
As such, the Viper spear had to obliterate the beast with a single strike, to avoid dying at its hand the moment he reached its range.
Unfortunately, that was easier said than done.
After all, he couldn't be sure that the lava golem's brain would be in its head.
The shape it had taken was just that; a shape without any relation to a body's physical anatomy.
With that in mind, Nial's first task was to figure out the area he had to attack in order to kill the Lava golem with one blow.
Using his perception to sense the magma dripping from its body, Nial began to focus on sensing the remaining parts of its body.
He would be able to find what he was looking for in the areas that were mana dense.
Unfortunately enough, there were three such areas which could be considered quite disadvantageous.
In the end, one of the mana dense areas was its brain, the second was its mana core, and the third one was something Nial had no idea about
His knowledge was too shallow to answer the questions he had in mind.
As such, he could either poke and hit one after another or try to destroy all mana-dense areas at once.
The Viper spear wouldn't be affected despite the searing heat of the Lava golem's body.
Because of that, it was possible for him to pierce through a particular spot before continuing to hit and attack the second and third spot.
Slashing through the body of the lava golem shouldn't be as difficult as doing the same with normal beasts made out of flesh and bones.
After all, its body was liquefied and held together by something Nial had yet to comprehend.
Thus he continued to rack his brain and think of a proper solution, which made him miss another group of Machnam beasts that was slowly approaching him.
Only when his other senses other than the mana perception noted something was he dragged out of his train of thoughts.
Turning towards the Machnam beasts, he catapulted in their direction without hesitation.
Having adjusted to the enormous enhancement [Hodur's Heir] provided him with, Nial could only move his body at a much faster speed.
His movements were much smoother too, and the number of injuries he sustained was minuscule as well.
However, this was only obvious because all of his senses were sending him blaring warning signals of attacks even if they happened right behind him.
One time, more than ten fast Machnam beasts had attacked him, yet owing to his enhanced senses, he had managed to evade their attacks easily.
This was exceptional even if the beasts he fought were from a Lowest Rookie dungeon.
Nial was already excited to start training his physique properly before learning the [Control of the Ancient Monarch] technique.
With 27 days left, he should be able to fix his physique, as well as start understanding the technique he had received from Master Junades.
The only problem was to procure enough knowledge to be on par with the other youths that would enter the Teradan military camp.
Most of them hailed from influential families that wanted to make use of the military camp in order to gain fame for their family, and form deeper connections with the military through that.
At the same time, their children ought to build up their own connections with other youths they deemed as useful, whether it was owing to their talent or background.
That was what Nial presumed to happen, but he couldn't bother about that, at all.
He just wanted to become stronger, and only by smoothly eliminating the threat in front of him, was this possible though it would take time.
'I hope the camp's lethal training methods are as promising as Kira made them sound to me…' Nial could only hope for the best while killing the last Machnam beast.
His senses were fully unleashed when he sensed that the Lava Golem had noticed him.
However, that was not further surprising because the Machnam beasts had been quite loud.
Oddly enough, he could keep his calm and collect the corpses of the beasts he had killed, before continuing to fight the Dungeon boss with his back facing it.
In the end, it didn't matter whether he faced it frontally or not because he was using his senses to perceive the beast to begin with.
As such, as long as he deflected the attacks and came up with good counterattacks, he would farewell.
Taking his opponent for a fool to fight like this, the Lava Golem tiptoed towards him, while it even attempted to stop magma dripping on the ground.
Nial found this quite adorable, considering that he was facing a more than three meters high bipedal Laval golem, whose entire body was made out of lava.
Despite it being adorable, he had to kill it because it would attempt to do exactly the same.
With that in mind, he crushed the origin crystal that had dropped from one of the Machnam beasts, absorbing the mana that was released greedily.
By refilling his little mana core, Nial felt fully vitalized as he tightly grasped the Viper spear.
Nonetheless, he didn't turn around yet and tried to make use of a surprise attack in order to defeat the Lava Golem.
Through this, his heart began to beat wildly as he tried to make use of his mana perception in order to properly sense the exact location of the three mana-dense spots of its body.
Nial had to know this in order to think of a proper attack to execute.
As such, he changed the Viper spear and turned it into the glaive form, making things much easier for him.
After inserting some mana into the blades, he enhanced their sharpness, which would allow him to defeat the Lava golem without an issue.
Everything was prepared in a perfect manner, and there was no reason for him to be worried about anything.
The defenses of the beast he was about to attack were weak, and so were its mana fluctuations.
Repeating this in his head over and over again helped him be at peace, and it was only a matter of time before he perceived that he had begun to act.
Using up the remaining mana, he attempted activating [Hodur's Heir] curse.
This drained him of every last droplet of mana, further enhancing his senses to a higher peak, giving him a clear perception of every single inch of the Lava golem's body.
Oddly enough, this allowed him even to sense rough outlines of what the things in the mana-dense area looked like.
Nial would be interested in getting a better understanding of everything if the situation was not extremely dangerous.
However, because that was exactly the case, he had to be mindful of every single step.
Making use of the muscles in the midriff, he twisted his waist along with his entire upper body to reach the highest momentum as he thrust the Viper spear into the Lava golem that was now within the spear's range.
Nial targeted the closest mana-dense area that seemed to be the most crucial before continuing his attack by diagonally thrusting the Viper spear in its glaive form.
It didn't leave the body of the Lava golem even for a single moment, but pierced through the designated target, before cutting through the second one.
Unfortunately, he was unable to reach the third target, but that was owing to droplets of magma that burned his hair.
In fact, Nial felt as if his entire body was boiling, which was, most likely, exactly what was happening.
The moment he slashed out with the glaive-form Viper spear, the Lava golem retaliated.
The boss monster moved slowly, punching him with its fist.
Owing to his extraordinary senses, Nial was not really having issues evading the attacks.
However, that was not the problem he was facing.
The Lava Golem's punch caused several droplets of lava to be spread in the surrounding area, narrowly missing Nail, who felt as if time had suddenly slowed down.
It made him feel almost as if death was approaching him, even though it was evident that the droplets wouldn't hit him.
His heart skipped a beat, and only when he sensed that the two destroyed organs of the Lava golem caused the beast to crumble was he finally able to sigh in relief.
The droplets of lava shot past him, and there didn't seem to be a single issue.
Nonetheless, the moment the Lava Golem collapsed, Nial jumped backward, before continuing to retreat a little.
,m A splash resounded in the surrounding area, but before the remnants of the Boss monster could spread on the ground, it began to turn into countless particles.
Only this gave Nial the necessary reassurance that the fight was over.
The tension in his body was released and he couldn't help but feel that the battle itself was quite unproblematic.
Instead, the nerve-wracking period before the fight had been the most burdensome for him but had ended rather unspectacularly.
However, that was perfectly fine with Nial because he would rather have an unspectacular fight and survive instead of almost dying in a spectacular fight.
But, before he could calm his rapidly pounding heart, his focus was averted from the reminiscence of the fight against the Lava golem towards the drops of its corpse.
There was not much he could see.
In fact, what he saw were a bunch of origin crystals at Low Common grade and a large mass of compressed magma that was infused with strong mana currents.
It looked almost as if the entire mana of the Lava Golem was stored in the mass of magma, which astonished Nial a little bit.
The scorching heat had cooled down to the level of heat prevalent in the dungeon's surrounding before he had approached the Lava Golem.
This was quite intriguing, and by moving his hand slowly towards the mass of magma, his doubt was proven to be correct.
'It's not even hot? Just what is this?'
He was confused, but by touching the mass Nial could clearly tell that there was no discomfort. Rather it was a great feeling!
In the end, the magma packs felt like the packaged liquefied cooling elements, except that they were just warm.
They were radiating a heat that was comparable to the surrounding temperature, but somehow, it made him feel as if it was radiating a soothing feeling.
It was impossible to deny that he found it interesting to touch the magma elements, and by picking them up, he noticed that it was much more than he first assumed.
'They are 5…maybe 10 kilograms in total? It should be worth quite a bit…but, maybe they're quite useful to relax my muscles after training martial arts as well? They should have a similar effect to a massage…I guess?'
Nial was quite confused about the magma elements, which was why he didn't even notice how much time had passed.
At the same time, he didn't even realize that the surrounding area was crumbling, the vein-like lava streams had turned thicker, and it was time for him to leave.
As such, only when it was almost too late did he sense the increase in the surrounding temperature, which made him act quickly.
Storing everything away, he quickly left the dungeon, only to step out of the portal just before it disintegrated.
Little did he know that a few Originals had just appeared in front of him, prepared to enter the dungeon before the military would take a look at it.
"Fuck, we are too late!"
**
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