“The boss is over there.”

My eyes follow Alda’s finger as she points towards what to me looks like a giant cactus. Well, if a cactus had legs, teeth, flowers for arms, and of course a giant crystal horn rising above its head.

Clearly, it is a plant type monster, which means it is going to be poisonous and weak to fire.

But it is also a boss monster, which means it is going to be immune to fire for some odd reason and its poison will kill extremely fast.

But still…

“A plant, why did it have to be a plant,” I say as I fold my arms and glare through the receding treeline towards the boss near the cave. Apparently, the boss seems to not have a weed problem because all the plants around it seem dead.

“Why can't I fucking raise plant monsters? Like really? Why does it have to be flesh?”

No answer is given from my whining.

“Like really, a [Beastmistress] can tame sentient monster plants but my racist ass skill has a flesh fetish,” I grumble.

“You still have that one,” Alda says as she points at Berosus behind me.

I turn and gaze at my beloved minion. Powerful, dangerous… and fleshy.

Yea. You know what, fuck plants. Flesh is better.

My eyes swerve slightly from Berosus and they land upon my [Captains]. They stand ready, happy, except for Thorous who seems to be unable to meet my eyes.

It has only been a couple of weeks since I had saved her and she had been avoiding me constantly.

On the other hand, Alba has been the complete opposite. She has been… attached. Attached enough that a bond of friendship had been formed with my [Captains]. And by [Captains], I mean Lilly and Tessa. Those three are inseparable now.

As for Darrow, that guy is like a puppy. An utterly resilient and single minded puppy who is borderline treating me like some kind of god.

Which is bad… because gods are assholes.

…

Wait… I work for assholes.

“So… how will you handle this? Will you send your army?”

Thankfully, a question throws my mind back on track. I turn to Jessica who gazes at me expectantly while pointing at the several thousand undead monsters lined up in species, size, and level.

I can see why [Necromancers] are hunted. [Necromantic Mana Corrosion] is such an overpowered skill. I’m barely using any mana to keep thousands of minions alive, and all of that is at the cost of the minion's durability. I mean sure, they are decaying quickly and will break down after a couple of weeks. But it takes much less time to slaughter before that happens.

Unfortunately, I can't do that.

I shake my head, “no, I will be sending only Berosus.”

She raises an eyebrow at me, “Why? Isn't it more efficient to send an army?” she asks.

“Normally, the answer would be completely and utterly yes. Throwing away adisposable army to kill a boss is all nice and all, but it gives me very little growth. I have done some tests and I can wholeheartedly say that the more effort and time I put into killing something, the more reward I will obtain. Sending out a mindless army and killing a boss with numbers works, but it stymies my growth. Hence why I will be directly controlling Berosus.”

I call up my status sheet.

The past two weeks were met with training and practice. I found that the more involved I was and the more of a handicap I faced in a fight, the more I obtain in leveling experience. I stopped using horde tactics on my first day and instead started manipulating my minions and skills at the same time. I made it harder on myself which helped me level quickly.

Also, it helped that the forest is literally filled with higher-level monsters.

Unfortunately, the three skills I obtained were not too useful. [Skeletal Archer] is what it is. A weak undead with a bow and bone arrows. The skeletal flyer was an interesting one as it was a spiked ball with some kind of soft bone wings. It, unfortunately, broke most of the time on impacts. Even the [Hardened Skeleton] skill, which supposedly makes the bones of my undead denser, did little to keep my skeletons from breaking.

Regardless, I’m level 94, and with luck, I will get to one hundred. I can only wonder what class I am going to obtain.

“You are smiling weirdly again.”

I groan over my loss of concentration. It's been happening far more often than I would like.

“Just imagining what I will get at level 100,” I say.

She gives me a smile and nods, “Same. I can't wait either.”

I suppress the rolls of my eyes as I remember her level when I recently checked.

She beat me. Somehow, she beat me. I should probably tell her, but I think I will let her find out on her own. It should be a nice surprise.

“Well, levels can wait. I have a boss to kill. So I need you two to get back.”

The two girls quickly comply and walk back to stand next to my [captains].

I take a sigh and begin walking towards the boss in the distance, Berosus beginning to follow. His steps impacting the ground with enough force to shake the trees and cause leaves to fall. The rumbles even make distant birds fly from their perches.

I feel powerful...

I feel deadly...

“I feel like an idiot,” I whisper under my breath as I gauge Berosus travel speed and the distance between it and the Boss.

93 minutes before I am in range. This is going to be a very long walk…

_______________________________________________________________

Over an hour of walking passes by before the thumping begins to be felt by the boss.

The boss awakens from its slumber as its body wiggles and eyes open. The monster, to its surprise, finds another monster of similar size slowly heading towards it.

And this monster, unlike the trees around it, is taken as a dangerous threat.

The monster moves its lower body, root extracting back into its core before it begins to stand. The thousands of arm-sized needles on its body begin to swerve towards the enemy, powerful venom already dripping from the tips.

The monster expands its inner body, filling with air before compressing and vibrating.

_________________________________________________________________

“Shit” the words escape my lips as I run behind a thick tree right before the needles fall. I hear the impacts as needles penetrate into the tree I am hiding behind as well as watch them fall like a storm of arrows.

The needles fall for a good half-minute before they finally stop.

I move and take a quick look around me. Thousands of needles litter the ground. They poke into the ground like spikes.

I turn and look around the tree, finding Berosus still walking, his body littered by an enormous number of needles. They had penetrated his skin and dug into his flesh. Poison can be seen oozing out from the wounds in bulk.

A smile grazes my lips as my minion walks unhindered. Poison is an effective weapon against anything living, but the undead do not care. They don't need muscles to move. They only need mana and a relatively undamaged skeletal system.

I take a look at the boss and activate my [Advanced Analyze] skill.

That poison could be pretty useful. I wonder if I can enchant it into a weapon. What do you mean deaf?

My thoughts are stopped as I get back behind the tree as another volley of thousands of quills falls from the sky.

“It's kinda nice. Like raindrops hitting the ground.”

Moments pass and the attack stops after a minute. I turn to look and find Berosus, covered in a coat of quills, but still moving forward.

I look to Ericius and can't help but smile at the seemingly confused expression of the boss.

But it doesn't last long as the boss bends forward and I find that the crystal horn on its head has a small opening. It points the crystal at Berosus and I can't help but worry what it's going to do.

The boss expands a moment before it contracts.

“BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM,”

The sound of a gunshot goes off. My eyes are barely able to even see the projectile move before slamming into Berosus and exploding into a massive cloud of green smoke.

Oh… its a fog.

The fog covers Berosus completely. My eyes swerve to the floor. The dirt is boiling around Berosus.

Shit… it's a corrosive fog.

The fog clears slowly and my fears become unwarranted as Berosus is mostly uninjured. All of his skin is gone but the bones seem to be rather resilient.

BBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM

BBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM

BBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM

But it doesn't seem like the Boss knows that considering it keeps shooting every five seconds. By the third shot, my eyes adjust enough to see what is shot. A pellet of liquid is shot which breaks on impact, reacts to the air, and then becomes a fast-spreading gas. A powerful and deadly effective weapon if you ask me.

The attacks continue and Berosus gives no shits. Even the impacts which would sever a human body cant even slow him down. Over ten tons of mostly bone mass is not an easy amount to overcome.

Thankfully, Berosus finally gets in range. It raises one of its tentacles and slams down with an intense impact.

BBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

A literal explosion goes off as the entire area becomes filled with a mile width green fog that begins dissolving everything it touches.

I swallow, thankful at the fact that I am outside of the range.

It takes a good minute for the fog to die down. Berosus no longer has meat, all of it had fallen off.

But he still stands in his boney greatness.

YEEEESSSSSSSS

So do I get a choice of whi-

Ok… I guess I don't get a choice. Fine. It's probably going to be something epic.

“Yes,” I say, my eyes looking forward in extreme anticipation.

“... Really? REALLY!!!!”