While Liam took a breather, two of the wyverns took care of the poisonous plants by themselves by burning down the vines spread everywhere.
Unlike the last floor, this one went by quickly, but Liam did not move forward just yet. He was waiting for his minions to get back.
Back on the lower floor, the numerous soul minions were patiently going through puddles of sticky, oozy materials that were plastered on the floor and the walls to see if anything had dropped after the fight.
This was the first time Liam had battled a boss in the updated dungeon, so he had a feeling that there might be something to look forward to, perhaps a decent item drop.
And his hunch was right on point. It took a few minutes and the combined efforts of several soul minions, but eventually, a barbarian returned back with a mana core.
“So, no item or weapon?” Liam let out an exasperated sigh at the sight of the smaller than usual mana core, but as he received the mana core to take a closer look, his frown quickly turned.
Unlike the pure crystalline structure that mana cores typically tended to have, this one was actually slightly muddled. It had light streaks of dark green and purple, like veins running along the mana core.
As far as Liam knew, something like this was not possible in the common-grade mana cores. In fact, he hadn’t observed anything like this, even in the mid-tier mana cores back inside the game world.
The only explanation that remained was… this mana core was not ordinary.
Thankful that the long and painful grind had at least turned out to be worth something, he quickly commanded the soul minions to move onto the next floor of the dungeon.
Perhaps this was his lucky day.
This dungeon might not have dropped as many weapons and items as the first dungeon, but if it was going to drop high-quality mana cores that had an affinity to an element, then that was far more valuable compared to the item drops.
Liam grinned as he pocketed the core and ordered the minions to take care of the rest of the mobs on the dungeon floor. With fire-spitting minions front and centre, this floor got cleared at a much faster rate.
The vines were quite sturdy and laced with poisonous thorns, but after getting repeatedly bombarded with various attacks, they did not stand a chance.
They also lacked the high magic resistance of the slimes, so the floor got cleared out quite easily. Liam as well received a nice chunk of experience points.
Of course, this would have been taken care of a lot faster if a certain fox had been here. Liam smiled at the thought of the fox as he quickly tried to connect to Luna.
“Is everything over fine?”
Growl! Luna replied back snappily. From the looks of it, she was still pouting.
Liam shook his head helplessly and continued to move onto the last few mobs on the floor. Soon even those were cleared out as the group arrived at yet another dungeon boss!
Well, if one could even call it that.
Liam eyed the huge spread of the thick, sturdy veins that were twisting and turning all over the place. It did not even look like a creature in the first place, but he did not dare underestimate it.
The whole thing was definitely a single unit.
And if he were a single person, this boss would have definitely given him a run for his mana. However, he was not.
Liam signalled for the wyverns to start the fight once again. The ten draconian beasts spread out and started attacking the massively spread out boss in different places.
Vines lashed out from all sides, and the fight was a total blood bath or would have been if anyone in the army actually had blood flowing through their veins.
Liam summoned a few more minions to watch the back of the wyverns, and then he himself dove into the fight as well. This was a splendid training opportunity, and he did not want to miss it.
Coiled veins erupted from all directions, trying to attack him, scratch him and tie him up, and it forced Liam to move as fast as he possibly could to evade the sturdy and nimble opponent.
He slashed down at the vines that he was not able to evade, but the regeneration ability of the monstrous plant was quite impressive. It kept regrowing with every cut it received.
Just like the mother slime, it took a while to exhaust the strange being.
This made Liam even more confident that this guy also possessed a higher-grade mana core which was essentially supplying the creature with endless energy.
The only question was whether it was high enough to take on the attacks from the wyverns and Liam at the same time.
The answer to this question was revealed in a few minutes as the huge enormous plant that didn’t seem to have an end, or a beginning was burnt to a crisp with nothing left, save for one single item.
Amidst the fallen ashes, the six-winged lion dug out a suspicious small mana core. He hurriedly ran to Liam to hand it over like a good little dog.
Liam observed the mana core and noticed a light greenish-yellow tinge to it this time. Once again, he had received an above-average mana core. “Perfect. Let’s keep going.” He grinned.
They were down two floors, and there were still, hopefully, many more left. At this rate, this dungeon trip might just help him pay a huge chunk of the debt or buy another valuable skill.
The next floor of the dungeon was a welcome non-poisonous zone filled with treants. These monsters were pretty much trees that had come alive with a tinge of evil mixed in them.
But Liam realized he had jumped to that conclusion too fast as the first one immediately opened its mouth to blast a very pungent breath and one filled with toxic spores.
Thankfully, he already had his mana barrier up as he had anticipated some sort of poisonous attack, which seemed to be the theme of the entire dungeon.
He evaded the attack, and at the same time, the wyverns started attacking the treants. However, it did not go as smoothly as the last floor.
The treants not only had the poison burst, but they were also hitting heavy. Each of them was around level 80, and the wyverns couldn’t hold on for too long. Even the three-headed one struggled.
So Liam immediately sent all of his helpers to the backline, taking the brunt of the attacks and attention onto himself. It was time to get dirty and personal.
Just like in the last dungeon, he was once again stuck on this particular floor with the mob around level 80.
Even with his bonus stats and enhanced abilities, it was still draining to tackle an entire dungeon all by himself. The other soul minions did chip damage at best.
But Liam continued to trudge along the dungeon relentlessly.
The hard, physically tiring combat helped him take his mind off of many things, especially about the uncertain future and the dangers looming around them, both the ones that they knew of and the ones that were probably hidden.
Hours passed by, and he slowly and steadily progressed on the dungeon floor, taking out one group of treants after another.
The tall tree-like monsters whipped their branches at him, each one lashing out with heavy weight. Liam suspected that these creatures were using earth elemental attacks to boost their strength and power further.
He did not know how long it had been since he started working on this dungeon floor, but it was clear that he was not going to be done anytime soon.
The only question was whether to continue going in this manner all the way to the end of the dungeon floor to face the floor boss.
While the thought of obtaining another higher-grade mana core was enticing, he did not want to risk his life unnecessarily.
They were outside the game world now. Every death meant a permanent death.
His logic warned him to leave the dungeon before the boss, but Liam also wanted to challenge himself by facing an enemy far stronger than him.
While he was mulling over this decision, an unexpected notification popped up in front of him.
<Ding! Your guild has been upgraded>
“Huh? What now?” Liam stopped in his tracks staring at the new message. The two mana cores were still with him, so it was not him that had initiated it.
“I guess I will take a trip and check it out.” He cleared a few more of the treants along the way, gaining some experience points and then finally left the dungeon to pay a visit to the magic shop.
He was curious about the guild upgrade, but he also wanted to see if he could buy some sort of trump card from the magic shop before attempting the floor boss.
