Assimilate All Talents

In the rest area before the boss door, Sol collapsed onto the ground and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Ahh, I was worried there for a second. I was running out of material to stall them with. It’s hard making stuff up like that on the fly…”

Not being naturally gifted at speaking, Sol had struggled to maintain the pretense that he was seriously considering their offer. He masked his awkwardness by also asking questions he was genuinely curious about.

“Luckily, the Zomest controlling the Zombeast didn’t catch on. It didn’t seem like it was used to conversing with others, so it answered most of my questions without even thinking about it.”

Though annoying, the Zomests controlling the Zombeast had only been tasked with retrieving the void root. But being creatures born for combat, negotiation wasn’t their strong suit. They likely would have even answered why their mother needed the void root if they had known themselves. However, the dungeon core had kept that to herself—her reasons weren’t for her minions to understand. As long as she asked, the dungeon monsters would move to fulfill her wishes without question.

As Sol lay on the ground resting, Amber wasn’t as relaxed.

“What if they come here?”

She knew there wasn’t much to stop the undead from chasing them down to this floor. If not through the stairs, then perhaps through the ceiling, like when they had been initially attacked.

Sol, using one hand as a cushion against the hard ground, shook his head.

“I doubt it. You weren’t there, but the Zomest said something that stuck with me: ‘Mother is still loyal to her creator, and she’s bent a lot of his rules today.’ Their ‘mother’ is the dungeon itself, and the ‘creator’ is the god Proteus. It’s clear that dungeons operate by some sort of ruleset, and the dungeon didn’t want to break them. With the undead dropping from the ceiling and everything else, she was already pushing the limits of those rules. That’s probably why all dungeons have somewhat similar setups with only minor variances. One constant is the safe areas—no monster has ever been seen inside one. They could probably enter safe areas if they wanted to, but they don’t. Otherwise, why didn’t they just drop a bunch of monsters here while we were resting, or block the stairs with hordes of undead? I think we’re safe, at least for now.”

He adjusted himself, feeling uncomfortable with his hand as a pillow. Sol pulled out a sleeping bag from his spatial ring and lay down on it before continuing.

“The boss room should be normal, too. But just in case, we should still keep an eye on our surroundings.”

Amber considered his perspective and found logic in his reasoning. She sat down next to him, and though her blank expression hid it well, her body was exhausted. They had been running and fighting for the last half hour without rest. If it weren’t for their potions to recover mana and Sol’s healing spells, they wouldn’t have lasted through such an intense chase. If the undead did come down for them, they’d have no choice but to take on the boss while completely drained.

A few minutes later, Sol’s stomach rumbled. He flipped onto his side and asked, “Do you plan on making something to eat?”

Amber shook her head. “Preserved food.”

“Fair enough, jerky it is.” Sol sighed but didn’t argue. They were both too tired to bother cooking. Over the past few days, he had grown quite fond of Amber’s excellent cooking, to the point that he was already dreading the end of their dungeon trip—he wouldn’t be able to enjoy her meals for a while. He pulled some dried jerky from his spatial ring and chewed it as quickly as he could. He was too hungry to even taste the overly salted meat, swallowing it practically whole.

Lying back down, Sol couldn’t help but feel a little regretful. 'Sadly, I couldn’t use [Siphon] on the Zomests, but the boss should make up for it.'

...

An hour later, Sol was doing a few stretches, looking much more energized.

*Gods, my body’s still a bit sore, but it’s nothing that’ll affect my fighting.*

He turned to Amber, who was nearby cleaning her daggers. She finished and holstered both blades in the sheaths at her hips.

He didn’t need to ask if she was ready. Instead, he simply said, “Let’s get out of here. The boss shouldn’t be too much trouble.”

Amber gave a curt nod and followed him through the massive door.

Stepping through, the two were transported to one of the many boss rooms on the 30th floor. They found themselves in what looked like the ruins of an ancient city, with stone structures scattered around the massive room. It was hard to see clearly—only a faint light glowed above a temple-like structure at the center of the room.

The two scanned their surroundings, but no matter where they looked, there was no sign of any enemy.

Already knowing what kind of opponent they were about to face, Sol calmly chanted a spell in his mind. “[Revealing Light].”

A bright orb of light appeared above him, illuminating the area. Strangely, though the light was intense, it only covered a 10 foot radius around him. After a brief moment, the light was snuffed out, and the room returned to its previous dim state. Sol didn’t panic and immediately recast the spell, looping it.

“[Revealing Light]. [Revealing Light]. [Revealing Light]. [Revealing Light].”

Light orbs appeared one after another, only to be extinguished just as quickly. This back and forth continued until Sol began multicasting, summoning three orbs at a time. Soon, the room was filled with countless bright lights, pushing the surrounding darkness back until only an oddly shaped blob of shadow remained, surrounded by seven different light orbs. Sharp shadow tendrils lashed out, piercing or strangling the lights, but each one destroyed was replaced by three more. Despite the intense magical illumination, the shadow blob persisted, refusing to shrink any further.

Having identified his target, Sol changed spells and prepared to attack. “[Light Spe—]”

“ENOUGH!”

A blast of shadows erupted from the blob, extinguishing all the nearby lights. As the shadows retracted, a figure rose from the blob. It was tall and thin, humanoid, with black skin, pointed ears, and a tail tipped with an arrowhead swaying behind it. From its expression, it was clear the creature was already furious.

“You’re just like those damn skulls! Constantly spewing out spells! We both know I can’t win against you two, so do you have to be so annoying about it?!”