Floor 20 begins!
The environment is similar to the previous floor, but surely with different fauna.
This room has a balance of soil and swamp.
Could the boss be an amphibian?
I step onto the muddy ground, having to be careful because there are many strange holes here.
I make a thin foothold to step on.
The footholds are done.
I think this is enough, so I start stepping carefully on the footholds.
One step...
Two steps...
Three steps...
The footholds I made are too thin, so they eventually crack, causing me to fall.
Luckily, I didn't fall into one of the monster holes below.
But it seems like they know I'm here...
They started coming out of their nests, I saw them...
They were swamp snake-like monsters, their bodies covered in slime like eels, ranging in size from medium to normal for large snakes in swamps and rivers. They had fangs and sharp teeth encircling their entire jaws inside their mouths, red eyes with sharp downward-facing pupils.
They began to surround me, hissing loudly.
I hurriedly stood up and rushed away. However, that only made the snakes more aware of my presence.
I was really panicking, my heart was beating fast, not to mention that my space was very limited.
The snakes chased me, and when I took a step, they would put their tails in front of my feet to make me fall.
Of course, luckily for me, I didn't fall again.
I kept running and continued to make mud walls around me to ward off their venomous attacks, while also maintaining my light footing, because that's what kept draining my energy. I had to run and do both.
I really wasn't sure I could get out in one piece. My clothes were also badly damaged and torn, but my spare clothes were at the inn.
The tree roots hanging like those of a tropical swamp tree in the real world were really helpful, allowing me to increase my speed by swinging from root to root. Besides that, these roots helped me balance myself.
I kept running, and then one of the bright yellow snakes slightly scratched my left leg with its fangs, but I don't think the scratch drew blood, so it should still be safe, right?
It happened again three more times, in different locations after my left leg, namely my right leg, left hand, then right hand.
Until finally! Finally! I reached the boss's location!
Gasping for breath, I collapsed at the edge of a swampy hole that resembled a large lake, only it was overgrown with trees and filled with mud—in fact, it seemed there was more mud than water here.
I looked around and saw thick fog filling the area...
No! The fog was getting thicker the longer I looked! It was growing denser and denser!
It's like it's not giving me a break!
My mana was decreasing. Now, if I looked at the mana gauge, it was at 2 out of 5. I thought that would be enough to kill the boss.
In the thick fog and muddy swamp, the boss began to reveal its form, like a water dragon swimming.
It swam up and down, slowly approaching me.
Then, as I was trying to stand up, it revealed itself to me.
A white snake with few scales, but scales that shone brighter than jewels, it resembled a dragon, but it was not a dragon.
It had sharp eyes with blue irises that glowed like an aura, and it had long whiskers like ribbons on both cheeks, but with sharp ends like razors.
It had a nose with layered scales and small antennae around its snout to facilitate investigating prey in the mud.
The boss was a monster commonly called a swamp serpent.
I looked up at it, then tried to stand up.
My body felt heavy and painful to move, compounded by the discomfort of the mud covering my body beginning to dry.
The snake boss watched me, like a machine scanning an object, until it was sure of what was in front of it.
Then, as I stood up limping, it casually circled me.
I then imagined a fleet of eagles and jaguars, two large eagles about 3 meters in size and three large jaguars.
Then I raised both hands forward and created a magic circle in front of my palms. I closed my eyes, then borrowed the shadows around me as the initial foundation for the shape. I took the shadows because most swamp creatures are cold-blooded and nearly blind; they usually detect enemies using heat, and this also conserved the mana I had.
I must stay focused!
The eagle and jaguar were finished, so I opened my eyes and ordered the shadow I had created to keep the snake boss busy by attacking it repeatedly with mud formed from its beak and nearby rocks.
The snake began to shift its gaze to one of the eagles I had created.
"It's time for me to hide!" I muttered to myself.
I moved away from them, behind the bushes at the edge of the swamp, then I entered the bushes and covered my body with wet mud to disguise my temperature. After that, I peeked through the gaps in the bushes to control the shadow creatures I had created.
I closed my eyes and connected my vision with that of one of the eagles, then I directed the eagle as if controlling a character in a game, feeling my fingers pressing the ASWD keys.
In short, the ASWD keys are used for:
A = left side, S = down and backward, W = up and forward, D = right side.
The snake shook its head up and down, causing its whiskers to point toward the eagle I was controlling. I moved the eagle to the left, then down.
The snake then jumped toward the eagle, forcing me to direct the eagle backward.
One of the jaguars then bit into the soft part of the swamp snake's skin, pulling and tearing at its flesh.
The snake stared at the jaguar and screamed instantly.
KRAAAAAHHHHHH.
Its teeth were clearly visible, protruding outward, with an absurdly wide mouth. It was like a screaming flower monster, opening its petals and mouth filled with teeth and green saliva.
One drop of its saliva fell into the swamp water.
The swamp water, which had been transparent brown, turned into moss green with a blue sheen and dark green smoke that was highly toxic.
SSSSSTTTTTSSSSSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
The snake hissed loudly and screamed, making me uncomfortable. At that moment, the snake healed its wounds and strengthened and sharpened its shiny scales. The glimmer on its sides increased, as if sprinkled with galaxy glitter. It looked even more beautiful but also more dangerous.
The shimmering scales made it difficult for the eagle to see because of the light reflecting off them.
Behind the bushes, I was sweating profusely, my mana was decreasing, I didn't have much time!
I had to think of another way, because the renewed scales seemed so hard that they couldn't be pierced anymore.
My mind was full and chaotic.
ANOTHER PLAN? WHAT?! WHAT SHOULD I DO?! WHAT IF IT DOESN'T WORK?! WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF I REACH THE RED BAR?! WHAT SHOULD I DO NOW?! WHAT ANIMAL?
THINK BALANCE! THINK!
I held my dizzy head with my eyes shaking violently.
Outside, the snake boss attacked the animals I had created, striking one eagle and then pouncing on another, then it twisted its body very quickly, turning its tail into a whip that split the air with a loud sound. The whip and the quick twist of its body threw the jaguars in various directions until finally all the shadow animals I had created disappeared and were destroyed in an instant.
Now the snake boss was looking for me, feeling his way from edge to edge while hissing his tongue in various directions.
Perhaps because of my high taunt, he could detect my presence. However, he couldn't pinpoint my exact location.
And now, he was right in front of me.
I was stunned by the aura he emitted. I should have been able to reach level 30, but since I wasn't really skilled in self-defense, and my first experience was very unpleasant, I couldn't adapt to this situation very well. On top of that, my body was also very weak.
He seemed to have trouble locating me precisely because I had a strong taunt. He knew I was here, but he couldn't see my exact location even with his heat detection because the mud covered my body. I saw him quickly turning his head in various directions until he finally couldn't stand it anymore.
I moved my body with great effort and caution so as not to be detected by him, but in the end, it was too late.
The snake boss whipped his tail like a whip toward me, and of course, I was knocked away by it.
I was thrown and hit a tree nearby, and my HP was reduced by half because of it.
Honestly, I shouldn't have pushed myself!
It knew me, it saw me and intimidated me with its sharp, blue-auraed gaze.
My mind was chaotic, filled with questions and regrets.
"Dewi, please help me," I said in my mind.
The goddess was silent, it seemed like she was playing and paying off her debts now, haha...
The snake boss began to circle me, hissing continuously.
I only had one bar of mana left, which was just enough to get to the inn and a little bit left over, but that would only be enough to create one small ant by sacrificing a little mana to get to the inn.
Wait a minute!
Ants?!
A light bulb appeared next to my head when the idea popped into my head. Don't ask me about it, I don't know where it came from either.
I closed my eyes and created a small bomber ant as the snake began to tighten its coils around me.
"CREATIONS!"
I kept my eyes closed to direct the little ant towards the snake's nostrils as it twisted and coiled around me.
The ant I created fell many times, but thankfully it was unharmed.
Finally, the ant managed to reach the front of its nose, which was covered with a clear membrane.
The ant then tore the membrane, causing the snake to rage and slam its head against the ground repeatedly.
Of course, the ant managed to get inside before the impact, and finally!
I exploded the ant inside the snake's body, its head exploding one by one from head to tail.
The snake's red and green flesh and blood scattered everywhere, even on my face.
The water in the lake turned bright blue, a sign that the poison had disappeared.
"Is its blood an antidote?" I wondered silently as I sat under one of the trees.
The system then teleported me out because my condition did not meet the requirements to advance to the next floor.
However, before that, the goddess said to me.
"I didn't help you earlier because I knew you could do it, and don't worry this time when you're dying, I guarantee you won't have any problems." She said that with a smile.
When I left the tower, people avoided me with pitying and disgusted looks because of my smelly and disheveled appearance.
I kept walking with a limp until my health bar finally turned red.
The world seemed to grow larger in my vision, and my hands?
WHAT IS THIS?!
WHY DO THEY LOOK LIKE THE LEGS OF A SMALL ANIMAL?!
That's what I thought before finally fainting on my way back to the inn.
TO BE CONTINUED