The Insolum Beetle’s exoskeleton was extremely tough; however, Izroth was able to slowly chip away at it piece by piece using the exposed area where its wing once existed as a starting point.
In truth, while the Insolum Beetle possessed a large amount of HP due to its status as a world boss, its HP was on the lower end compared to other world bosses around its level. This mostly had to do with its high natural defense and strength.
In terms of raw physical prowess, even Izroth, with his Heavenly Golden Body and the Ring of the Ancient Colossus effect active, could not compete with the Insolum Beetle head-on.
Not to mention its mobility and magic abilities could also not be underestimated.
Overall, the Insolum Beetle was unbelievably well-rounded in all aspects except one—its health. There was also the fact that it was not used to fighting other strong opponents. After all, it likely ruled over this section of the Ferae Jungle without contest.
Because it always relied on its overwhelming power to suppress everything around it, the Insolum Beetle’s attack patterns were simple and straightforward.
Once Izroth learned its attack patterns, he went on a full offensive strike. There were a few times it went outside of this attack pattern, but it could not help but return to what it knew after failing.
In the end, Izroth slowly shaved away at the Insolum Beetle’s HP while avoiding its strikes over the past thirty minutes.
The only reason he momentarily halted his attacks and fell back was because of a warning from his Soul Sense as well as his own instinct.
‘What is it trying to do?’
Izroth observed the Insolum Beetle, whose entire body began to shake excessively as the mana around it started to grow restless.
‘It can’t be…’
Izroth narrowed his eyes as sensed the strange fluctuations in the surrounding mana within the atmosphere. Then, without wasting another second, Izroth’s figure flickered away at great speeds. He also utilized multiple charges of his Primed Instantaneous Movement to create as much distance as possible between himself and the Insolum Beetle.
Just as Izroth was a bit more than fifty meters away from his previous position, he felt a shockwave crash into him. However, right before the shockwave struck him, Izroth activated his defensive skill, Warpath Blade: Gale Zone Guard.
…BOOOOOOOM! Rmmmmmble!
The earth shook as a massive explosion emerged, and an ear-ringing noise swept over that part of the Ferae Jungle.
…
A few moments later, the effects of the explosion died down. However, the aftermath was heavy as nearly one hundred meters of the Ferae Jungle had been cleanly wiped out!
The origin point of this explosion came from the same place the Insolum Beetle stood not that long ago. Although it was no longer anywhere to be seen, it left a giant crater in the wake of its destruction.
‘To think it would detonate its magic core out of the blue. Since when did world bosses become this reckless?’
Izroth managed to walk away from the explosion; however, he lost more than half his HP after his Warpath Blade: Gale Zone Guard was overwhelmed by the explosion.
“I thought I was far away enough to fully minimize the damage with Warpath Blade: Gale Zone Guard, but the explosion was more powerful than I anticipated. Fortunately, my body is rather sturdy.” Izroth said as he consumed a high-grade health potion to restore some of his lost HP.
Thanks to the combination of his Might stat and Heavenly Golden Body, it was not easy to deal life-threatening damage to Izroth in one go. Nevertheless, as an extra precaution, he decided to use Warpath Blade: Gale Zone Guard, and it turned out to be the correct choice. While he may have still managed to survive the explosion, his overall state would have made recovering much more challenging in the short term.
After Izroth consumed the health potion, he opened his system alerts and checked over them.
‘It’s just as I thought. It’s not here.’
Despite exploding its magic core, Izroth had not yet received an alert from the system regarding the defeat of the Insolum Beetle.
Even if it took care of itself, the system should still count it as his kill. Therefore, there was only one explanation—the Insolum Beetle was still alive.
“Did it understand its own circumstances and hope to take me out in the explosion? No, that isn’t important. Right now, I have to find it before it’s too late.” Izroth said to himself as he headed to the explosion’s center and started to look for clues left behind by the Insolum Beetle.
“Even if it’s a world boss, exploding its own magic core must have left it in a sorry state. Since it’ll be completely defenseless while it attempts to reform its magic core, along with the fact that I injured its wings, it can’t have gone too far from here.”
Izroth was not worried about the Insolum Beetle restoring its magic core. After all, it would still be injured and unable to display its full might in front of him.
What concerned Izroth the most was something that existed in practically every jungle with strong monsters—territory.
The Ferae Jungle covered a large portion of land; therefore, it was unlikely that the Insolum Beetle was the only strong existence in this place.
Now that it was injured, Izroth believed that other monsters with high intelligence might take this chance to get rid of it and claim its territory as their own. If that happened, even if he did the most damage to the Insolum Beetle, he would end up walking away empty-handed for his efforts!
He had already wasted half an hour fighting the Insolum Beetle; therefore, he needed to have something to show for it.
‘Hm? This hole is…’
A small hole in the earth where the Insolum Beetle was located before the explosion caught Izroth’s attention.
It was so insignificant and easy to mistake for a natural occurrence as a result of the Insolum Beetle’s explosion; however, Izroth noticed something unusual about the hole.
“It’s hard to see with all the magical interference in the atmosphere, but there’s definitely a trace of the Insolum Beetle’s magic around it. It covered its path of retreat well. If it were anyone else, it might have gone completely unnoticed. Unfortunately, it met me. Still, to explode its magic core and use earth magic to escape while doing so… This thing is more crafty than I thought. That being said, aren’t these circumstances a little too ridiculous?” Izroth said as he inwardly shook his head.
This was the first time he witnessed a boss monster flee in the middle of a battle, and it was a level 60 world boss at that! How many players would believe such an outlandish set of events that ultimately led to a world boss running away from a single player?
‘This should be the way.’
After following the faint trail of mana left by the Insolum Beetle with his Energy Vision Sense, Izroth found the rough direction that the world boss should have fled in.
“Let’s hope I’m not too late,” Izroth uttered to himself as he took off at great speeds into the Ferae Jungle.
…
Izroth followed the mana trail and arrived at the entrance of a cave.
The cave itself was hard to see into from the entrance; however, after using his Energy Vision Sense, Izroth was able to confirm what was inside.
‘It’s barely discernable, but without a doubt, this is definitely the place.’
Izroth felt the presence of the Insolum Beetle within the cave. However, for some reason, Izroth sensed that the atmosphere inside the cave was somewhat bizarre.
At first, he thought it might have something to do with the Insolum Beetle reforming its magic core. But, upon closer examination, Izroth discovered that the two were completely unrelated.
‘Strange, I’m certain it’s alone in the cave. Then, why does it feel like another presence resides within this place? Also, this cave… It’s hard to tell, but it wasn’t naturally formed. Meaning, something or someone must have created it.’
The Insolum Beetle specialized in earth magic; therefore, it was possible that it used it to create this cave. But that would not explain the other unrelated presence Izroth could feel embedded into the cave itself.
‘I guess there’s only one way to find out.’
Izroth entered the cave with his Energy Vision Sense active to navigate his way through the darkness.
After walking for a couple of minutes straight, Izroth could finally see a light coming from ahead.
He made his way toward that light and was greeted by a blinding glow. When Izroth took a few steps forward, the blinding glow faded, and what revealed itself was a spacious cavern.
On the cavern’s ceiling were countless aquamarine stalactites that bore a closer resemblance to gemstones than your typical rocks. These stalactites released a slight warmth and were the main source of lighting within the cavern.
