Rise of the Living Forge-Chapter 432: Testing Time

The group, with Arwin and Olive at the lead, cleared several more rooms without wasting any time. All the monsters they faced after the boss room’s strange inhabitants acted pretty normally. They attacked on sight — and they died.

But the fights were getting harder. The average strength of the monsters in their way increased. They got faster and smarter, trying to slip past Arwin to target the other three members of the party.

Once or twice, they actually succeeded.

An Expert Tier monster managed to use the darkness of the ceiling as cover and dropped directly on Anna and Thane — but Olive’s arm sensed it coming at the last second. The cursed wood exploded to life with the sound of a roaring forest to send a huge root curling through the air.

It had slammed straight into the monster’s chest, ripping a deep hole into its skin and slamming it to the wall. Olive had then yanked it back to herself, where she and Arwin dispatched it within moments.

Nobody got seriously injured, but they were all too aware of the rising difficulty of the dungeon. They were forced to move slower and more cautiously. Arwin didn’t want to end up getting anyone killed because he was too impatient to clear the rooms properly.

But move on they did. One room after another fell. Olive had initially been taking the majority of the kills so the experience wouldn’t be wasted, but that was no longer possible. Neither of them could afford to hold back in the slightest. Even a slight lapse in judgement could have been enough to turn the tides of the fight against them.

Arwin killed everything he could, and Olive did the same. Anna and Thane threw in their own help as well, calling out warnings whenever monsters looked like they might be about to get a surprise attack off.

And, a little over two hours later — with one pause in the middle to recover their magical energy and catch their breath — the Menagerie followed the thread of [Dragon’s Greed] past the many forking paths within the dungeon to find themselves standing before a large set of heavy wooden double doors flanked by crackling purple torches.

They’d reached the next boss room.

And, by the grandiose nature of the doors before Arwin and the beautiful metal trim running along their edges, he got the feeling that this was the end of the dungeon. Even the air felt heavy and laden with power.

“I think the size of these doors indicates that the boss beyond them is stronger than the previous one,” Thane whispered. He ruffled through his bag. “I’ve got some references—”

“No need,” Arwin said. “You’re right. This is the final boss. I’m fairly certain. I’ve got an ability that points me toward magical items, and the strongest pull was from this room.”

There were a few other items throughout the dungeon, but their pulls weren’t quite as strong as that coming from the boss room before them — and Arwin didn’t dare risk pushing their luck much farther.

They’d already gathered a very significant portion of materials and experience — not to mention several magical items that had been handed off to Anna and Thane to be carried until the dungeon was done.

Anna was also dragging a bag full of the best monster parts around along with her. If he got greedy and tried to clear every single room of the dungeon, there was too great a chance that someone would be hurt. Arwin was more than satisfied with what they had so far.

There were only a few small things left behind that we didn’t collect. Clearing the dungeon is the real prize. If we can take out this boss… well, then all that’s left is to figure out a way to get Thane his class.

A part of Arwin wanted to challenge the boss himself. To have Olive stay back with Anna and Thane to make sure they were safe while he dealt with the monster. But this was an Expert Tier enemy. Even with his prototype armor, he doubted he’d be able to handle it on his own.

I promised Lillia I’d stop trying to do everything myself. Bah.

“We have options,” Arwin said finally, breaking free of his thoughts and turning to the others. “Beyond this lies the strongest monster in this dungeon. It will be considerably more difficult to defeat than the other rooms, and I doubt we’ll get an easy kill like the last time. We certainly can’t count on it. It will be dangerous to continue, and not everyone here is—”

“Don’t stop because of me,” Thane said firmly. “You’ve gotten this far. You can’t just give up right before clearing the dungeon! And I still don’t have my class. That means you’re still doing what my family asked of you. Turning back now would be giving up.”

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Anna’s lips twitched in amusement. “He’s right, you know. And don’t worry, Arwin. I’m not without ways to defend myself.”

She patted the pouch at her side.

“We’re so close to the end,” Olive said with a nod. “I’m with them. And you haven’t even used whatever it is that you’ve been working on with Wallace and Koyu. I want to see it. If you think we can handle the boss, then I say we keep going.”

Well. I suppose that makes it hard to choose any other path. Everyone’s set. I wish Lillia was here. She’d probably be able to come up with a strategy to deal with this… but I suppose hitting something really hard until it can’t fight back anymore is also a strategy.

“Okay,” Arwin said simply. “You all know how this goes. Anna, leave the bag of monster bits here for now. I don’t want you weighed down by it during the fight. And Olive — we go all out the moment we get a feeling for the monster’s abilities.”

“Right,” Olive said with a nod. “We’ll play it safe and keep its attention until we understand what it can do, then do a conjoined rapid attack to take it down as fast as we can. Don’t worry about who gets the last blow. It’s not worth the risk.”

They all exchanged a nod. There was no reason to delay any further.

And so Arwin stepped forward and placed his hands on the doors.

Then he pushed.

Unlike the previous boss room in the dungeon, the doors to this one swung open soundlessly.

A pink glow washed over Arwin in a wave as the sound of bubbling liquid rushed out to meet his ears.

In the room before him was a huge lake. It was just like the previous boss room but escalated to an entirely different level. The pink lake bubbled, large bulbs forming on its surface before bursting and releasing sulfurous smoke that formed into thick clouds that lingered by the high ceilings.

Heavy gray strands covered the walls and stretched across portions of the ground. It was like an enormous spider web — and scattered around the room within the web were large, pulsing orbs around the size of a large human. The shadows of vague forms twisted and jerked within them as if in the throes of ill sleep.

Eggs.

But Arwin didn’t get much time to take them in. His gaze was instantly drawn to the very center of the room. Sitting within the middle of the lake was an enormous creature something between a bat and a fully grown Wyrm.

Leathery black skin was stretched taut over jagged bones, and even though the monster was partially submerged, several of its razor-sharp claws rested at the edge of the lake in wait. Two molten red eyes sat within the monster’s sunken, eerily human skull, and they were boring right into the Menagerie.

This boss was not asleep, and it most certainly wasn’t about to sit around and wait for Arwin to launch a fully charged arrow straight through its skull.

Words twisted through the air above the monster’s head as it shifted, starting to rise from its bath within the bubbling pink lake.

[Nightfang Nestmother – Expert 2]

“Get inside!” Arwin yelled as he burst into motion. “If it catches us outside the room, we won’t have room to maneuver!”

The others sprinted after him, sprinting through the doors — which slammed shut behind them with a resounding bang. There wouldn’t be any running from this fight.

The massive Nightfang tore itself out from the lake with a furious screech, sending pink fluid splattering everywhere around itself. The liquid hissed as it touched the webbing covering the room, melting through it almost instantly.

But it wasn’t just the webbing that melted. A large portion of the lake water splashed across the egg nearest to the Nightfang, eating through it almost instantly. There was a second screech as a clawed hand burst free from within the egg.

[Enfuried Nightfang Hatchling – Adept 9]

“Shit,” Olive breathed. “If all of them get loose at once—”

“Deal with the little one, then go stab the eggs and kill the rest before they can get freed,” Arwin ordered as he summoned Caldera to his hands.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted something that made his blood run cold.

Within the twisting mist covering the ceiling, something had moved. A shadow. But not just one of them.

Dozens.

Arwin had thought that there were only a few eggs in the room. He’d been wrong. The ceiling was completely covered with them. There were probably two dozen of the monsters, and they were at the peak of the Adept Tier.

Shit.

“Change of plans,” Arwin said. “If all the eggs hatch, we’re going to get overwhelmed. I’m rushing this thing down now. Don’t hold anything back. Go all out immediately.

He drove the hammer down on the ground with a resounding crash to draw the boss monster’s attention to him.

His strategy worked.

The Nestmother’s eyes snapped right to Arwin.

It let out another hiss and exploded forward. Even as gaunt as the monster was, the thunderous scrape of its claws against the ground sounded like a horde of demons clawing their way free from the depths of hell.

But Arwin didn’t move.

He stood right in the Nestmother’s path as he reached deep within himself, drawing on his power and thrusting it into the skeleton of the armor he wore beneath his clothes. The metal heated against his skin as it activated properly for the first time since they’d entered the dungeon.

Arwin’s teeth gritted as energy crackled. Red smoke twisted through the air around him. It gathered at his back like a cloak and sent tendrils of energy twisting down his arms as if to help him hold Caldera.

Come on. Let’s do this.

Somewhere deep within his mind, a connection snapped into being. The stone at his feet trembled. Then it cracked. Fragments of it rose up around Arwin as if gravity had reversed, trembling as crackling arcs of electricity arced between the sharp pieces of rock as they were commanded into service.

And the Infernal Armory, its presence summoned from the building that it called home and deep into the depths of an Expert Ranked Dungeon, awoke.