When we have finally got enough rest, we decided to just open the door and see what’s on the other side. We didn’t have anything to prepare, so wasting more time would do nothing good for us. I just prepared a single thin and sturdy thread to cut everything that came at us.

The room we arrived in, was circular in shape, and both floor and walls were made out of perfectly flat wood. It was smooth to the point I wondered if I would slip if I tried going to fast, but when I checked it actually wasn’t that slippery.

Okay, so if we are here now, what’s going to happen next? As if to answer my question, a black fog started forming at the exact middle of the giant room. I waited for a bit to confirm the shape of the thing that was going to come out, and when I did, my blood boiled.

I had enough of this, there are the limits of good taste, and whoever was at the top of this dungeon certainly was well past them. I didn’t care about what I was doing, I was simply consumed by this craziness. I didn’t notice all of my mana going into my thread, I just swung it.

It felt heavier than usual, but I didn’t care, I slashed with my full force. When I finally cooled off, and saw the results I was dumbfounded. The giant rabbit that was about to spawn wasn’t cut in half, it was reduced to bloody puddle.

Turns out that pouring mana into my thread created magic stone on the second end, and it was half the size of the monster. No wonder it was obliterated. Well, that felt better, I don’t think I would want to see another rabbit in my life, and when I do, they are probably going to end up in the same way as this one.

Slightly refreshed I went to check if a skill stone was left by the boss, since on every floor was monster that did. Strangely enough, I didn’t actually get any skills, but every time I picked one up it said that I gained a skill fragment. I think they are all parts of a larger skill, but I can’t be sure.

That’s strange, I don’t see any stone in the puddle, did I crush it? But this should be impossible, because the stone should only appear after killing the monster, I doubt it was stuck inside them since the beginning. Something was wrong, and the fact that I didn’t see any new entrance appear apart from the one we came in, only strengthened this feeling.

And soon my intuition proven correct, since black fog started gathering again. Air turned icy cold, and I felt shivers coming down my spine, even though I got that strong, I was actually afraid of the thing that was going to come out.

Not wasting any time, I quickly threw the cat girl into the shadow. This was another useful function of the rings, we could use them to hide in the shadows, and we could stay there as long as we wanted. Unfortunately it wasn’t that pleasant experience, so it’s only an emergency measure.

And as soon as I did that, the fog started taking shape. It wasn’t a rabbit, it wasn’t even alive. Death aura was seeping from it, and the pressure it emitted was something else. Well, it wasn’t even close to the presence of the caped guy, so I could just ignore it.

It was a skeleton, wearing black robes of a mage. And even though all of my senses were telling me, that it can’t be anything other than a mage, it was holding swords in each hand. Appraisal activate!

[Lich duke]
[Lvl: 58/100]
[Status:]
{
HP: 2431; MP: 1216;
Strength: 1872;
Intelligence: 2041;
Agility: 1751;
Vitality: 2200;
Defensive ability: 2184;
Offensive ability: 2255;
}
[Skills:]
{ [Aura of darkness lvl. 4] [Mana detection lvl. MAX] [Mana high detection lvl. 3] [Mana manipulation lvl. MAX] [Mana high manipulation lvl. 2] [Darkness magic lvl. 9] [Twin sword mastery lvl. 8]
[Concentration lvl. MAX] [Fast thinking lvl. 2] }
[Titles:]
{ [Duke of darkness] }

Strong! Going by its status values I had no chance of winning. They were only estimated, so there could be some errors since monsters weren’t connected to the system to the point of having stats, but even if my skill was wrong, this monster was ridiculously strong.

How am I supposed to beat something like that? He didn’t have that many skills, and for some reason he was lacking the sword techniques, but all of the ones he had were high level. I probably can’t take even one hit from him or I’m dead.

While I was thinking what to do, it launched a ball of darkness at me, and thankfully I managed to dodge it, but there was another one coming. I quickly slashed it with new thread I made, since the previous one was stuck with a giant magic stone on it’s end.

The ball dissipated, but the magic in it seeped into my thread, slowly turning it black, and I had to let it go before it reached me. I had no idea what would happen if it touched it, but it seemed dangerous.

I made another thread while dodging the darkness coming at me, and when I saw an opening I slashed the undead. Yes! It clearly connected! Wait… What? My thread passed right through the skeleton. It couldn’t be another illusion could it?

No matter how much I was staring at it, the usual distortion that was accompanying illusions didn’t appear in my sight. It was either a very high level of the illusion, or it was a real being. I think that the second option is actually true, so why can’t I hit it?

My thoughts again were interrupted by the duke, it slashed me with its sword, taking one of my legs. Well, I lose them all the time in fights against powerful monsters so it didn’t faze me that much. The real worry now, was how was I going to damage this thing.