Chapter 72: Alone In The Dark 2

POV Eliza

After the slightly sleepless night surrounded by ghosts, I went on to floor 7. There was the combination of wights and ghosts. I used this floor to level up a little further. The wights were still not a big threat and the ghosts had also lost their fear. After the night in the middle of the ghosts, my mind resistance had increased to the level necessary to no longer influence me. It took me two days to clean the floor, then I had defeated all the wights. I defeated the ghosts as I passed, without wasting much time with them.

On floor 8 came the hardest opponents for me so far, the mummies. Here I proceeded more carefully to activate a maximum of 2 at a time. I chose a combination of air bolts and melee combat, but since the mummies had more HP than the other undead, it took longer. I was still fighting in the dark and a hit from the mummies was painful. I couldn't dodge all the attacks, I wasn't that good.

After two more days I still hadn't gotten through the entire floor. The next day I had to briefly interrupt my exploration and make a fundamental decision. The reason was simple because I only had 2 days worth of food. So I was forced to leave the dungeon within those two days if I didn't want to starve. I now had two options. I left the dungeon and was discovered. Or I wasn't discovered and was able to stock up on new foods. The risk was high because the entrance was guarded and it was difficult for me to judge what time of day it was outside in the dungeon. Especially after spending about a week in the dungeon. Or I waited two more days and then had to go out, delaying the decision.

I decided to use the day to get to the second boss room as quickly as possible and then leave the dungeon. Then I spontaneously decided what to do. I left the rest of the mummies' floor behind me as I ran towards the exit, avoiding all the mummies. I also ran through the floor with the lichs, even though I took a lot of damage from their spells. But as long as I kept finding or clearing a small area to regenerate, the problems were manageable.

I also didn't use magic against the lichs to save MP. The reason for this was simple. In the dark, despite my ever-improving senses, I often ran into obstacles such as walls and enemies. If I buffed myself with the agility spell or the speed spell, I had less control over my movements. It took further training to get used to it even in the dark. A point for the future.

I did the same thing (running towards the boss room) on floor 10, only I still fought individual mummies. It also took me half of my last day to reach the boss room. Fortunately, I had lost all the monsters and was alone. This allowed me to renew my HP. In the course of this exploration I was able to collect enough EXP to further improve some skills. In addition to self transformation, this definitely included regeneration to tier 10. Unfortunately, I couldn't increase both further because I had reached the cap. I also couldn't improve Dagger and Evade any further, even though I was already on advanced rank. So there had to be other requirements that I hadn't met.

I was curious to see which monster became the boss. A wight wouldn't be a problem, nor would a ghost. A lich would be very annoying and a mummy could be dangerous. I cast my two support spells and entered the boss room. The door closed behind me and the light came on. While my eyes were still adjusting to the brightness, the monsters appeared. The boss was apparently a ghost. Well, I could deal with that.

I cast an air bolt on a lich and then ran in a circle around the monsters to another lich. I didn't have time to cast more spells because then the wights were with me. In the meantime, the Lichs were bombarding me with spells. Since I already knew that the spells do more damage than the wights' attacks, I lunged at the Lichs, dodging the wights' attacks as best I could. When the mummies approached within a certain distance, I ran to the other half of the room, where the other two lichs were. I ignored the ghost, which unfortunately turned out to be a small mistake. I had forgotten that a boss had a higher level than regular monsters and therefore a higher skill level. This meant that the ghost could still cast a spell on me, even if the effect was only small. I noticed it because I became hesitant to attack. In order to avoid any critical situations, I then ran away and used the rest to regenerate.

In the next minutes I resorted to a hit-and-run tactic. I attacked the Lichs until the mummies were within reach and then ran away. As soon as I had defeated the Lichs, I took care of the ghost. He got on my nerves after a while and at some point I had to defeat him anyway. Now that the lichs were gone, the biggest danger was that a mummy would get me. Then came the wights. The three mummies alone were no longer a major problem. By the end of the fight, my stamina was almost gone and I was breathing heavily. I had never had so little stamina.

The reward of my labors appeared before me. First I went back to the stele. I had the same choice as before and this time I wanted to improve a skill. I fluctuated between mind resistance and paralysis resistance. I have yet to encounter a monster that could paralyze me, but as a solo adventurer, being paralyzed was certainly dangerous. I was also able to choose Mind Resistance in the Nature Dungeon. So I chose Paralyse Resistance even though it was very expensive. Then I open the chest. Here I find a lot of things that I can make good money from.

I left the boss room and moved back towards the surface using the new portal. Since I defeated the floor 10 boss, I came straight to the entrance. Before the dungeon entrance I cast all the support spells again so that I was prepared for the worst case scenario. I lay down on the floor and crawled to the entrance. Then I just looked out with my head. Luckily it was night outside so I wasn't spotted right away. When no guard was looking in my direction, I got up and sneaked out. I didn't risk being discovered at first and sneaked out of camp straight into the night.

From there I went to my shelter that I had previously built in the forest. The horse was no longer there, but I didn't expect it to be. The night was quiet and peaceful. I checked my traps the next morning and found some small animals in them. I could get by with this for a few days if I supplemented it with plants and berries. I was cooking my lunch when I heard noises coming from the direction of the camp. I crept to the edge of the forest and saw the heroes return. This meant that further exploration of this dungeon was no longer possible at the moment. So I planned my departure towards Lightburgh that evening. From there I planned further. It looked like I was becoming Eliza the Adventurer again. It was time to return to Tyros anyway. Lynn and Lirella had certainly been worried about me for the last few months.