[Sealed Mausoleum: B3F]

The next day.

Hecate revisited the Sealed Mausoleum once again and headed straight for B3F.

This was the dungeon she visited with Rena-cchi's party previously. At that time, the party disbanded just right at the end of B2F and she ended up doing solo grindfest at B3F.

Currently, the dungeon had been opened to the public by the Genesis Guild, with its members able to enter for free, while anyone outside the guild had to pay an entry fee.

Since there are risk of being seen by other people, Hecate didn't wear any of the Black Phantom's equipment.

She replaced the Cloak of the Fallen with her old Lunar Cape, and also the Mask of Serenity with the Kitsune Mask she got by exchanging GCPs from the Guild Treasury Exchange.

This Kitsune Mask unexpectedly had the effect of increasing the power of her Fire-based spells by 5%, so she exchanged it and returned to her territory first to upgrade it to +10 first, evolving it to Superior level and raising the number to 10%. As for the disadvantages of MP consumption, it was just a normal routine and it was nothing.

What could be more fitting for a loli wearing ceremonial attire than a kitsune mask?

Then, because the cape and mask originally had a rarity of 5★, after upgrading to +10, the rarity increased by 3, making it 8★. And so, she put Stellar Sticker+ on both of them, thereby increasing their rarity further to 10★.

This was done so that there were no changes to the effects of the Rare Mastery equipment set.

In addition, the Lunar Set equipment set has now evolved into the Superior Lunar Set, with the effect of increasing her Max MP and MATK even greater than before.

It was a shame Hecate lost some STR and AGI due to this change of equipment.

The loss of STR means her inventory space and weight limits are reduced, thereby reducing the number of items she can carry. But this was not a big problem and could be solved simply by switching the equipment again whenever necessary.

'I don't want to waste too much time now, so I might as well just skip the mobs.'

Hecate kicked the platform hard and jumped to another platform parallel to it. With skillful movements, she navigated the complex floor structure in B3F very quickly, avoiding battles with various kinds of undead.

Sometimes there were occasions when a fight could not be avoided, but she immediately activated the Mana Clone skill, and used the clone as a distraction. Although it wasn't a problem for her to kill all the undead, she was not in the mood nor did she want to waste too much time killing weak monsters.

Unfortunately stealth related status has no effect in the presence of undead monsters. They can see through someone's stealth status because they are very sensitive to life energy.

Therefore, Hecate did not bother using the Invisibility Potion.

After some time she navigated the floor, suddenly she received a familiar attack from behind.

Hecate only grinned when she saw the notification damage.

"You're here, yeah? But sorry, this time I have prepared myself from your attack."

Sure enough, when she looked behind, she saw the appearance of a Ghoul Slaughter.

Due to her previous encounter with this monster, Hecate took precautions by using a basic Mage defense skill called Energy Coat. This skill can reduce damage received by up to 90%, at the cost of consuming MP for each point of damage reduction, essentially wasting MP. Not to mention, the duration of this skill is relatively short, only 5 minutes.

Usually Hecate doesn't bother using this skill because she prefers to avoid all attacks without taking damage. But now, because of the unpredictable sudden attack of this monster, she had no other choice but to use it.

The Ghoul Slaughter who did not expect his attack didn't kill her, suddenly find he couldn't move for some reason and could only watch as the fiery lance decapitate his neck.

This was of course the effect of the Wraith Dead's Soul Essence combined into the Superior Lunar Cape that Hecate wears, which causes Sleep, Confusion, and Silence to attacking enemies, each of which has a 30% chance of activating.

SHIING!  -350750!

Just one hit and died!

The Ghoul Slaughter turned out to be nothing more than that!

With the wand in her left hand and the fire lance in her right hand, she continued her navigation. There were still 9 other Ghoul Slaughter left on this floor but they were no longer a threat.

Of the remaining 9 Ghoul Slaughters, she encountered 3 of them but they ended up with the same fate of dying in one attack.

• • 'What am I seeing? Gerrah, Kaster, and Frezid died in one hit!'
  • 'Damn, this Human loli is too stronk!'
  • 'Is she really a Human?'

As for the remaining ones, either their positions were far away or they saw the battle and knew the difference in their strength. None of them dared to approach her anymore.

This was just a small episodes in her hunt today.

Some time later, she arrived at her destination which was a certain position in the B3F.

On a first glance, there was nothing remarkable in this position. The only mobs there were some Wraith Dead which were quickly wiped out. However, if someone standing in this position looked in a certain direction, they would know why this position was special.

From her vantage point, she could see two Reapers in line with her line of sight.

"Well then, let's get started."

Without further ado, Hecate started her preparation.

"Overspell, Archwitch's Pride, Mystical Penetration!"

She activated a few certain spells in a certain order and then replaced the wand in her hand onto the familiar gruesome wand with a thick aura of death.

Fortunately, there were currently no Players except her in B3F so she could take out the wand without worry.

Then, she took a few consumable items and use them all.

The Eldritch Bone Wand that has been upgraded to Superior level, now its power has increased by more than double.

One of the slots on the wand has been installed with Archmiga Tarantulla's Soul Essence which provides an additional 20% MATK strengthening. Even though 20% of Max HP was lost, this was not a problem because Hecate had no intention of using this wand for anything other than special purposes. 

Additionally, there was a new spell appearing on the wand called Raise Undead.

This skill seems powerful, capable of creating undead monsters from corpses. It was just that the karma penalty was a bit severe, so this spell also couldn't be abused too much.

But this was another matter.

Hecate who finished buffing herself pointed the wand at the direction of the two Reapers, and let out a smile.

"I have no grudge against you, but please be a victim to my spell... Mana Explosion!"

As she spoke the name of the spell, the eye sockets of the skull decoration on her wand glowed bright red, and there was a thick line of black laser shooting from the wand.

The movement of immense magical power attracted the attention of the two Reapers, but unfortunately, they were too late.

PSHAAW! PSHAAW!

-35,680,000!   -35,676,000!

 The black laser had been fired and quickly penetrated the first Reaper and then penetrated the second Reaper.

Their physical immunity was useless and they didn't even have time to cast their Reflect Magic on themselves. But even if they did, it would still be useless since Hecate used Mystical Penetration to add a piercing effect to her spell.

• • 'What... happened?'
  • 'My lord... Forgive me... It seems, I failed my duty...'

The two Reapers destroyed without even knowing how they died!

But that was not all.

BOOOOOOOOOOMM!!

After penetrating the second Reaper, the spell does not disappear, but continues until it hits the dungeon wall and explodes.

The explosion turned into a rapidly expanding black sun, destroying everything it touched. Even though the explosion was quite far from Hecate, she could still feel the heat emitted by the explosion from her position.

Countless excessive damage pop-ups appeared continuously one after another.

-48,340,000!  -48,320,000!  -48,353,000!  -48,329,000!  -48,356,000!  -48,320,000!  -48,353,000!  ...
-53,400,000!  -53,376,500!  -53,395,000!  -53,426,000!  -53,437,000!  -53,376,500!  -53,395,000!  ...
-57,542,000!  -57,550,000!  -57,539,000!  -57,546,000!  -57,553,000!  -57,542,000!  -57,550,000!  ...

The undead starting from the position closest to the explosion point were quickly swallowed by the black sun.

Some undead who seemed to have developed wisdom started running, but unfortunately, their attempts to escape were in vain. Even those Wraith Deads who had formless bodies, could not escape the black sun.

And when the explosion had subsided, a suction force occurred and pulled many of the remaining undead from their places, causing them especially the non-flying ones to be thrown into the endless abyss below. Luckily, Hecate was safe because her position was quite far away and there were pillars that she could use for cover.

Seeing this situation, Hecate couldn't help but let out a laugh.

"Ahahahaha... Awesome! Awesome! This is it!! The absolute power, the absolute destruction!"

Satisfied with laughing, she began to calm her breathing and then pondered.

"It's a shame that because Reaper has Reflect Magic I can only use Penetration instead of Amplification, otherwise the amount of damage would be greater."

Almost a quarter of the mazes in B3F disappeared into thin air, with most of the monsters gone except for the undead who could float in the air. But unexpectedly, the spell still couldn't penetrate the dungeon wall at all.

This might mean the power of the spell was not enough or the dungeon walls were truly indestructible.

But that wasn't important.

Hecate's experience points increased sharply and in a very quick time she leveled up twice from level 133 to 135!

With two level increases, her stat points had now increased from 6 to 26. Without further ado, she spent 24 points to raise her INT as usual, from 222 to 223.

Done with that, she went to each of the places where the 2 Reapers were previously located to collect the loot.

• • 2 Ragged Clothes.
  • 18 Dark Magic Stone.
  • 1 Unknown Scythe <require appraisal>
  • 1 Broken Scythe.
  • 1 Old Photo.

Fortunately, the loot from the two Reapers could still be collected because the loot was still at the place of their death, which fortunately was not destroyed by the explosion.

"It's a pity that the loot from those monsters is lost."

There must be a lot of things dropped from the 35k monsters killed, including Soul Essences. Unfortunately, the loot either evaporated along with their bodies or fell into the abyss below and there was no way for Hecate to collect them.

Anyway, her objective has been successfully completed.

She took the trouble to return to this dungeon with only one goal, which was just to cast the Mana Explosion spell. Because during the previous hunt Arachnia suddenly ran away, Hecate lost the opportunity to use the spell and this really bothered her.

Mind that Mana Explosion was an equipment spell that can only be used once a week. Refraining from using the spell will not accumulate the number of uses, and she felt that it was a loss.

Back to the present.

Now with the two Reapers gone, the barrier blocking her path to the Teleportation Altar also disappeared.

But Hecate has no intention of exploring B4F right away. Not only was there a Weakness debuff due to the side effect of Archwitch's Pride, even her MP regeneration was disabled due to the side effect of Mana Explosion.

'There's no need to rush. I can visit this place again later.'

Thinking about this, Hecate suddenly remembered something.

She still had not reported to Dalmagna about the completion of her letter delivery quest yet. Perhaps the fact that she was recruited into the Soltreus Magic Academy was actually something planned by him.

'I should pay a visit to my teacher.'

With that said, she activated a Town Scroll from her inventory and disappeared from her place.

It was then, as Hecate disappeared, that a giant eye suddenly appeared from the abyss below the ravine.