“Over there!” I yelled.

Someone lying unconscious by the edge of a mossy rock. It’s one of the old men, Kenmartha. My heart thumps seeing that behind him is a dead end. Boland quickly hurries over to give him a shoulder. He asked, “Does this mean the Traveler and the rest are on the other side?”

“Quite possibly, yes.”

‘If he’s here fainted, does that mean the others too? What if there were monsters roaming around and found them in that state?’

“Let’s go.”

I nodded.

We traced back to where we were and continued on the path forward. But there is no intersection at all, until the very end where we see a large gate in the middle of the pathway. Different from the last, this one is wide open but blocking that path is something horrifying. Red eyes, pitch black figure with decayed wings, its body almost blocks the entrance of the gate fully.

'That thing is not an evolution of the undead monster we fought but rather its matured version. A boss, huh? I don't have time to grind for levels or wait for those things to respawn.'

Hiding behind a tree, ‘I doubt that thing can fly but can I really beat that with the only spell I have? Not to mention, it’s been a while since I fought low-level bosses like that to a point that I don’t remember the pattern of its attacks.’

‘Wait, can’t I use my axe as the catalyst for that spell? Wouldn’t it enhance its effects? But even then, will it be enough? I will never find out if I don’t try.’

“What do we do now, lass? That thing doesn’t look like your ordinary imps.”

Narrowing my eyes down, I ponder, ‘There’s another passage just before the gate but we can’t sneak our way through without getting caught.’

Observing every part of its body. I’m searching for the softest part with less defense than the others and it led me to its stomach, ‘Hmm, it could work.’

“Just leave it to me.”

“Huh?”

I went out from hiding and before leaving I requested, “Please help me if things go awry. But if not, please stay here and guard the old man, Ken.”

“Wait!”

Taking the axe from my waist. Upon activating [Wall of Stone], my arm was pressed by the weight of magical energy. It once again turns into brown color when reaching my hand but it didn’t stop there as the energy went into my axe, making the vein-like root glow up in brown color. I aim it at the ground beneath the monster, but it seems that I cannot conjure the wall at this range. So, I went closer and closer until it was just enough for me to do it.

But then suddenly, my mouth moves on its own, “Wall of Stone!”

*BOOM*

{130}

My eyes widened at the sight of the monster being pushed into the air by the wall created underneath him. The monster spins in the air as he recovers. Stomping the wall, crushing it in half.

*Boooooom*

Its throat breathing hard.

*Grrrrrrooooooooooooooooooaaah*

A symphony of battle music started playing in my head.

! {Boss Encounter}

~ {Gargantua Imp (Undead) | Lv. 20}

It took a low leap and dashes straight towards me.

Making my heart jump, ‘Fast!’

Activating the spell and swinging my axe again, this time the process of the magical energy flows really fast, and my mouth not having the urge to yell out the spell name. Quickly summoning that wall in an impulse to stop its track.

*Boom*

Hit its feet but the wall was destroyed before it can even go up far. But it did manage to halt the monster a little.

‘With Boland’s attack, I might gonna have an easier time but I don’t want to risk leaving. There’s no other way, I have to do it right.’

When it leaps forward to me again, I took a step back to control my focus. Activating the spell beforehand and waiting for the opportunity to strike.

‘There!’ my eyes peeled as I swing my axe down, “Wall of Stone!”

*Boom*

{130}

The monster is stunned by it but quickly recovers 5 seconds later.

‘I’m not even going to risk doing a riposte in that kind of window. Especially with the range I have with the thing.’

‘10 second cooldown on the spell. I have to be as far away from it as possible while maintaining enough distance to attack.’

Once again, upon recovering, he does another leap, but I have foreseen it.

*Boom*

{130}

Confidence grew as I kept hitting its stomach consecutively without fail, ‘My accuracy is just unfathomably accurate, alright. Hehe, no way you’re beating me out of my own game, little imp.’

This repeats until the monster stunned by the wall grew longer and longer. Until it’s long enough that I can activate [Wall of Stone] again before it can recover. I feel every last vein in my arms hardened once I get close to the monster, magical energy weighs them greatly as it charged my axe with its brown colors. I leaped forward and swing it right to the imp’s head while at the same time screaming, “Wall of Stone!” at the top of my lungs.

*TAKS*

*BOOOOM*

The rising ground split the monster’s head from its body with the skull stuck to my axe.

{80 Critikal}

{480 Critikal}

Soon, black blood drips from the conjured stone wall.

! {Boss – Gargantua Imp – has been defeated}

~ {+15.000 Exp}

~ {Loot Obtained: [E-Grade Random Item Box] x2, [F-Grade Random Item Box] x1}

~ {Special Loot Obtained: {Half Wing of Gargantua Imp (Undead) / Rank E / Rare / Innate Ability: One Wing, triplets the length of travel distance for all leap-type abilities / Usage Requirement: 60 Agility}

! {Level UP}

! {Level UP}

The sound of those notifications brought relief to my beating heart. I kicked the monster's head from my axe and breathe a sigh of relief.

'What's with that urge of yelling out the spell name? Back then, I only do it when I have to activate an art or a law. But somehow, just by saying it, I can feel that it made a difference somehow.

Glancing at a specific attribute of my profile status.

[Mana: 180/2200]

'You ain't kidding. I've spent almost all of that already.'

Odd because I always kept my spending in check. I would always leave at least half of my Mana as a backup, but to think that a Tier 1 spell can consume that much without me knowing it.

'Yelling out the name makes it strong. But it consumes a lot more Mana. And I can't even control it at times.'

‘I should worry about that later. In any case, the reward item went straight into my inventory, but the boss monster didn’t turn into pixels. And its wings are also intact. I wonder if I can just…’

Walking towards the corpse, I stabbed the area around the chest with a dagger, cut it, and took out its dark silver heart.

! {Item Obtained}

~ {Heart of Gargantua Imp (Undead) / Rank E / Uncommon}

‘Now that’s something. Usually, materials of a monster like this went into the RNG pool and are sent straight into Inventory at the same time it’s defeated based on the drop chance and luck stat.’

‘Good to know that grinding will be easier. But the process of looting is going to be even more painful.'