Chapter 1254 – Finally Final Boss Time

While Jake and Casper had spent most of their time in Minaga’s dungeon casually bantering and having fun, they did need to get serious at times, and as they approached the final boss, this was one such time.

The “Inner Labyrinth” guards were substantially more powerful than anything prior, and the Gunlancer and Marksman they had initially encountered were just a taste of what was to come. They encountered a few similar groups of roughly equal power, but after a while, they saw three enemies patrolling the hallway.

Surprisingly, there wasn’t much labyrinth or maze in this end portion of the dungeon. In fact, Jake wouldn’t even have needed Casper’s help to find teleporters, as there weren’t any.

Instead, they found themselves faced with a gauntlet of enemies. There were Gunlancers and Marksmen, but also Technomancers who could summon golem guardians and manipulate metal, as well as Deathstingers wielding poisoned rapiers while displaying the greatest speed of any opponent in the dungeon so far.

If Jake had been in this dungeon alone, he would have adopted a hit-and-run tactic, trying to focus on one opponent at a time while avoiding direct combat with the entire group. He could have handled groups of two, but when there were three, it would have become too tricky, and the final group of four – one of each opponent archetype – would have been impossible in a direct fight.

As for Casper, he straight-up admitted that he wouldn’t have been able to even beat a single Formation Master by himself. His damage output was lacking, and though he could possibly devise a way to kill a few Elite Guards before escaping to recover, it was uncertain if that strategy would even be successful.

However, combined, the two of them were confident in even facing down four of the Inner Labyrinth enemies. Casper’s ability to immobilize while being incredibly hard to kill made him a beast at buying time and controlling enemies, while Jake’s ability to do extreme damage allowed them to win the fight before they would run out of resources.

Casper couldn’t control all the enemies, though, but fortunately, Jake was just as difficult to take down as Casper, if not more so. Sure, when it came to durability and ability to nullify damage, Jake couldn’t hold a candle to a ghost form Casper, but he was still the best damn dodger in all of C-grade. If Jake focused solely on being defensive, he was confident that not even four of the Inner Labyrinth enemies could take him down in any kind of reasonable timeframe.

In the end, it hadn’t been easy, but the pair successfully made it to the final boss room after beating the group of four. It was a long fight, and Jake even had to use Event Horizon to take down one of their targets, but even then, it had taken some time. The difficulty had proven itself beneficial, though, as Jake found himself gaining yet another level, meaning he’d gained two just in this final section.

’DING!’ Class: [Arcane Hunter of Horizon’s Edge] has reached level 348 – Stat points allocated, +50 Free Points

Two levels so far, that is. If all went well, the final boss should offer one as well. But before that, both Jake and Casper were well and truly spent at the end, and they were currently in the midst of recovering right outside the area where the Risen and hunter both believed the final boss to be.

“How long do you reckon you’ll need?” Jake asked Casper, not joking about his inferior Meditate skill, but genuinely asking.

“Longer than I would like,” Casper sighed, having truly spent himself in that last fight. “It’ll take at least half a day, maybe a full one. Lyra also took some serious damage, which won’t be fixed in just a few hours.”

“Alright,” Jake nodded. “I’ll move back a bit and work on a poison for the dungeon boss while I wait. After I recover, of course.”

“Okay,” Casper nodded, closing his eyes as he started recovering. He’d already had to drink a potion during the fight, but even if he hadn’t, Jake was fairly certain that Casper’s recovery wasn’t just about restoring resources.

Jake himself also took a while to recover, though not as long as Casper. While he’d spent a lot of resources in the fight, he had avoided taking any major hits, and unlike Casper, he didn’t have to overextend his boosting skill usage either.

After a bit shy of three hours, Jake stood up and stretched, and after quickly checking on Casper, he retreated a couple of kilometers so he could do some alchemy. While Jake could make a bubble of stable arcane mana to contain the fumes that would be emitted during his crafting, given the ample space available, he found it easier just to use a single One Step and create some distance.

Sitting down again and taking out his cauldron, Jake mentally refreshed the type of crafting he was aiming to do. Based on the brief scouting Jake had made of the final boss room using Pulse, they would face another humanoid Aginian, so Jake wanted to prepare something for that.

Knowing his enemy meant not just that his Protean Arrow would be stronger, but also that Jake could take advantage of his Bane Poison experience from his dragon hunt. All the Humanoidsbane and whatnot he had crafted during his preparation phase paid dividends now as Jake planned on crafting something very close to it:

Aginiansbane Poison.

In the last ten days, Jake had already tried several times, seeing as Casper always took longer to recover, and he was already pretty damn close. There wasn’t much complexity, and fortunately, Jake had plenty of ingredients from newly killed Aginians to use for his alchemy.

Getting to work, Jake was fully focused and even used Invocation of the Malefic Viper to push for success. Casper ended up taking a full day to recover, but for once, Jake was the one who made the Risen wait a while, since he just felt so damn close to success.

Fortunately for them both – especially Jake, as he knew he would get shit if he ended up just wasting their time – he succeeded after only making Casper wait for an hour. Relying on his experience making Humanoidsbane Poison and the fact he’d crafted the far more difficult Dragonsbane, Jake created a bane poison the multiverse had never seen before.

You have successfully crafted [Weak Aginiansbane Poison (Epic)] – A new kind of creation has been made. Bonus experience earned

[Weak Aginiansbane Poison (Epic)] – Aginians are a race with little known about them, but you know enough to create the means to cause their demise. Deals significant damage and inflicts various ailments on affected creatures, most commonly displaying effects of a necrotic and hemotoxic nature. This poison is significantly more effective on entities with Records identifying them as Aginian, while completely ineffective against those that do not. Bane poisons directly bind themselves to the Records of affected creatures, making it incredibly difficult to heal.

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The effects of the poison were more or less identical to the Humanoidsbane Poison, which was the best Jake could do with the time he had. Perhaps he could have made a more specialized effect like he had with his Dragonsbane if he was fine with sitting around for weeks, if not months, but who the hell had time for that?

This was more than good enough. Moreover, the thought that this was an entirely unique bane poison, as it was based on creatures created for this dungeon, was mostly a joke, but it really shouldn’t have been. Jake had created something never seen before, and something like that came with Records. Not a lot, as it was an iterative race created by Minaga, but enough for Jake to get an unexpected level-up.

’DING!’ Profession: [Heretic-Chosen Alchemist of the Malefic Viper] has reached level 346 – Stat points allocated, +35 Free Points

’DING!’ Race: [Human (C)] has reached level 347 – Stat points allocated, +45 Free Points

“Did you just get a level?” Casper asked after flying over, Jake’s dumb grin on his face betraying that he’d succeeded.