---
Ding!
[Professor Lyra Veymont's interest in you has increased significantly.]
[Congratulations! You successfully awaken a new exclusive Perverted Quest.]
— Exclusive Perverted Quest —
[Quest: Professor's Warm Hug!]
[Content: Embrace Professor Lyra while placing your head on her breast, nudging slightly, and hold the position for 15 seconds.]
[Reward: ??]
[Time Limit: 2 Months]
[Difficulty: ★★★★☆]
[Failure Punishment: All stats temporarily halved. Gained Debuff: Coward's Mark]
[Note: Because she is the high ranking professor, early successful completion of the mission grants an extra reward.]
[Note 2: Completion of an Exclusive Perverted Quest is not mandatory. You may nullify its penalty by completing a Side Quest involving any heroine. However, abandoning this quest will permanently revoke access to the "Exclusive Perverted Quest" feature.]
—
"Fuck!"
"Bang!"
"Elemental Barrier!"
Soren barely managed to dodge the swirling inferno with the help of Aurelia's barrier.
"Are you all right?"
Sylvia hurriedly asked as Soren rapidly distanced himself from the Blazing Falcon in front, which was now level 29. Since they were near the boss's lair, the level of the surrounding monsters had also increased.
But thanks to their team coordination, they had managed to kill almost all of them. Now, only the Crimson Wyvern sleeping atop the cliff remained.
"Yeah, don't worry."
Soren replied lightly to Sylvia while focusing on drawing his D-rank bow, firing one mana arrow after another at the Blazing Falcon attacking Evan and Aurelia.
B-rank active skill, Rapid Shot.
After using his GAP stat, it evolved into an A-rank skill, Arcane Volley.
---
[Arcane Volley (A Rank): Materializes high-density mana as arrows and fires them at extreme speed, dealing direct magical damage.]
---
Compared to the S-rank skill Artemis Grace, this consumed far less mana and was extremely useful for crowd control.
Even though Sylvia and Aria had been denied by him from involving themselves in this fight, Soren alone managed to stop the Blazing Falcon from effectively attacking his teammates.
"Krrrrr..."
Sure enough, the temper of the Blazing Falcon finally couldn't withstand the barrage of arrows from afar.
It was being constantly toyed with by three puny humans weaker than itself.
How could it still remain patient?
In an instant, it roared loudly before turning its whole body metallic.
*Molten Iron Guard!*
Compared to the level 20 Blazing Falcon from before, this one could turn its entire body metallic, including its feathers.
In fact, it could even launch those hardened feathers as projectiles with a skill called Iron Feather Barrage, firing them like razor-sharp blades that pierced through armor and embedded deep into stone.
They were almost heavily injured when they were attacked for the first time.
"Aurelia!"
"Elemental Barrier!"
But this time, they had a wealth of experience. Before the monster could even fire those feathers at them, Aurelia had already readied her barrier.
"Swoosh!"
When the metallic feathers sped toward them like missiles, she instantly placed her barrier defensively in front.
"Boom!"
Of course, this didn't mean she stopped them with sheer force, as these metallic feathers had a unique penetration effect.
Aurelia couldn't simply block them when the monster was clearly higher rank than her, even at level 25.
"Soren..."
However, she wasn't trying to fully stop them. Instead, using her barrier, she subtly changed the trajectories of each metallic feather, making them hit the ground rather than her teammates.
Aurelia had to admit that Soren had exceptional leadership. He instructed her on ways to use her abilities that she hadn't thought of before.
No wonder he was praised by Professor Lyra.
*Artemis Grace!*
While using the Molten Iron Guard skill improved the Blazing Falcon's defensive abilities, it also significantly increased its weight, reducing its agility.
This was exactly what they had been waiting for.
The moment Soren saw the monster lowering its body and staying at a favorable distance, he used his GAP stat on Piercing Shot and fired a beautiful arrow that looked magnificent no matter how many times they saw it.
In an instant, an arrow materialized before the Blazing Falcon, shimmering with raw energy, leaving it no time to react.
"Krrr..."
It let out a deafening roar as its wing was shredded from the base, feathers scattering like molten shards, sending it spiraling from the sky and crashing to the ground with a heavy, echoing thud.
Smoke and dust swirled around the impact, yet the monster wasn't dead.
"Evan… finish it…"
But that was what Soren intended and why he only used half of his mana.
However, this much was enough, as the moment he shouted, a beautiful sword light swept across the monster's neck, separating its head in a jiffy.
The sword was so fast and sharp that the metallic guards could not even stop it for a second.
Truly, Soren had to admit that Evan's attack power was marvelous.
"Hey, did you level up?"
Soren didn't look at the dead monster, nor did he care about its loot. Rather, he asked Evan while chugging down a mana potion, before he saw Evan nodding at him with a smile.
"Yeah, finally level 25. Oh, and I also gained a skill."
Evan was filled with joy as he finally reached level 25, just like all the other teammates.
This was all because of Soren exploiting the game mechanism.
In fact, in the game Lover's Labyrinth, leveling up wasn't so easy. Killing monsters at the same or lower level gave very little experience, while killing higher-level monsters was risky.
That's why the concepts of grinding for levels and power leveling existed in this world.
But even as a student of the Elite Hunter Academy, finding a suitable dungeon like this one wasn't easy. Not to mention having good teammates you could rely on.
"That's good. Then, be prepared. That boss monster will awaken at any time now."
Soren knew what skill he might have unlocked after reaching level 25 and breathed a sigh of relief.
His gaze traveled up to the huge cliff ahead, piercing toward the dark cave.
Now that the last monster had been killed, the Crimson Wyvern should be awake.
It was the unique mechanism of this dungeon to give hunters a chance to conquer it.
Otherwise, with the Blazing Falcon already so intelligent, the Wyvern that ruled this place would not just wait in its lair for intruders to come and kill it.
It wasn't an idiot.
In higher-rank dungeons, multiple floors were designed to prevent this problem, with the top floor reserved for the boss monster.
However, this restriction disappeared the moment the dungeon was breached and appeared as a Gate in the real world.
That was why hunters risked everything to clear a dungeon. Once the Gate appeared, killing the boss would be very hard.
"Roar!"
Sure enough, the moment the last of its underlings was dead, a deafening roar echoed from the top of the cliff, before a beam of crimson fire flared in the dark cave.
At the same moment, everyone heard the announcement of the Voice of the World.
---
[The final boss monster of the E-rank Dungeon, Emberwing Roost, has awakened.]
[Please note: once you engage in battle, you cannot leave the dungeon unless you move beyond its area of influence.]
[Level 30, boss-tier fire-type monster, Crimson Wyvern detected.]
[Due to its high level, all fire-type spells have their effects reduced by 30%. The item effect of "Blazing Falcon Feather" (Slow Fall) has been nullified.]
---
The moment it appeared, its aura immediately debuffed their team. Especially, Aurelia's face was already as black as the bottom of a pot.
After all, she had been the one constantly suppressed in this dungeon from the very beginning.
---
[Your teammate Sylvia has used her S-rank skill: Purification!]
[The debuff from the Crimson Wyvern has been completely nullified.]
---
Fortunately, there was an S-rank healer in their team who had awakened her new skill after reaching level 25. No wonder Soren had been power leveling her.
Really, even for an E-rank dungeon, teamwork was truly the most important thing.
"Okay, get ready to fight. Be sure to follow my plan. Remember, we must kill this guy before it goes berserk."
...
A/N: