The Dao of Magic

44 - Struggle

"GATHER ROUND!"

One by one my now official disciples walk towards me. The moment the last one has reached the clearing, I continue.

"Fighting during the night at least doubles your rewards if you kill a boss during daylight, observe!"

I can't help but perform a flourish as a long stream of items starts to flow from the Tree. I mentally ask the Tree to clear a large piece of the forest so I can put the items down. Golden qi pours towards the opposite side of the clearing and starts moving trees around. I put the items down in the cleared space, in separate piles.

"I just beat a boss on level ninety after it became day. This was the result."

They all look at the never-ending flow of various items coming from the tree with open mouths. It will take too long like this, so I speed it up. A minute later the entire pile is now transferred.

"I almost forgot to give you guys these."

I pull the low-grade spatial rings from my pocket. I truly nearly forgot about them. I throw one to every student.

"Those are spatial rings, they come with the disciple job. Just stuff some qi inside to see how they work. I want you guys to load up on a complete armour set, including a full face coverage helmet. We might have to leave the dungeon by force after all. You guys can use the stuff to craft something, if you want, have fun!"

They are still looking at the pile of stuff and rings with open mouths. Nice fish impression, guys. I gave them a wave and jump back into the desert. I pick up Lola and walk towards the exit. I have to clear a few tonnes of sand before I can start climbing down. I reactivate combat mode once I reach the end of the stairs.

⁂

Floor ninety-three now. Enemies are getting exponentially stronger. One tiger of this floor has capability to wipe out entire previous floor. Dungeon core defence? Dodge swipe, avoid tiger that is on fire. Noticing pattern. Attacks come in pairs. Bonded couples? Kill one. Form qi spear and throw. Other tiger goes berserk. Bonded couples. Check sex to be sure? Male and female pairs, confirmed.

Eliminate berserk tiger first. Prepare lunge, land and execute. Punch tiger with half of full force. Middle section evaporates.

Project growth of animals until floor hundred? Need full power past level ninety-nine. Proceed anyway, have only used brute force and simple tricks so far.

Deal with flaming tiger now. Bonded with wet tiger, seems contradictory. Excite air molecules in opposite direction. Guide generated electricity. Wet tiger down. Throw wet tiger to burning tiger. Both are now paste, no need for full strength yet. Lola kicks tiger my way, intercept. Throw back her way. Spend ten minutes playing catch with big yellow tiger corpse.

⁂

Floor ninety-six, filled with guinea pigs and stick insects. Combination is more effective than it should be. Fighting them is more fun than it should be. Get distracted briefly by rodent name, is it guinea pig, cavy or cavia? Either one is fine, focus back on fight. Rip insect legs from latest victim. Make sharp with qi edge, throw to closest cavia. Jackpot. Throw other leg to other cavia. Relocate to latest victim. Grab guinea shish kebab, spear second cavia. And third. And fourth. Shish-kebab full, discard. Intercept shadow stick insect, prevent Lola getting stabbed.

Note to self, put Lola in Tree after next level. Can't guarantee her safety above nine nine percent at that level.

Kick off wall, grab next insect. Use as battering ram. Ineffective but fun, acceptable fighting method. Continue battering cute critters. Smash last cavia towards Lola. It is earth element, should be sturdy enough. Another ten minutes of playing catch.

⁂

Ninety-nine now, massive difficulty spike. All previously encountered beings are present. Level is an endless white plane. Lola is in Tree, she would die within four dot two eight seconds in current situation. Avoid gold puppet. Avoid metal spider web. Not possible? Push big dog in its path, safe.

More qi to brain. Perception slows down further. Spot teddy bear in distance. Size is... multiple kilometres high. Avoid wind blade barrage. Attach qi thread to flying boulder. Jump, sweep boulder around. Crushed three hundred animals, not enough. Spotted rope snake. Idea, intercept. Grab snake by fangs. Force venom from teeth, control and spread in mist. Push mist over animal horde. Projected casualties a thousand, not enough.

Projected horde size... Bigger than sight limit, expands beyond horizon. Last stand resistance of dungeon? Irrelevant, projected horde size is multiple millions. Projected outcome? Calculating. Fifty-fifty.

Fifty-fifty is acceptable. Survived worse odd. Focus back on surroundings. Use snake to sweep small fry. Snake disintegrates in hands, see its ribs pierce through multiple mobs. Time before pulling out tricks becomes necessity?

Result; only when halfway through current mobs. Show smile on face, this is fun after all. Grab spider, fear of poison is irrelevant now. Break off legs, avoid mandibles. Attach qi ropes to legs. Start spinning. Pierce spider skull with own leg. Spinning spider legs similar to lawnmower. Blood and organs flowing in the wind like freshly cut grass. Stop poetic process, can't spare brain space now.

Release spinning legs at points of maximum effect. Legs pierce through over fifty animals, not enough. Rip water from blood on ground. Send at high speed to approaching teddy. Teddy melts on contact. See massive yellow rabbit. Kick at full power. Rabbit plows through thousands of small fry. Effective, might be enough. Target earth affinity beasts for cannonball duty. Calculate optimum use of nearest big earth dog. Execute.