This Boss Is a Little Too Weak?

After passing through the area richest in Dragon Crystals, a faint black mist coiled around Carl's Power Armor.

There was not the slightest sign of corrosion on the Power Armor's shell, which meant the black mist was not corrosive material or magic like Cloudkill.

Carl shut off the auto-breathing system and took a light breath.

Some of the black mist swirling around the Power Armor was inhaled by Carl, but it was colorless and odorless, so she could not determine its exact composition.

Just as she was about to continue forward, a voice suddenly began tempting Carl inside her mind.

"Even now, you still haven't found any clues to leave the dungeon. Why not indulge your desires properly? Why investigate this place when it looks so dangerous?"

"Turn around and go back to the exit of the passageway. Pin that Tiefling who never knows how to avoid suspicion against the wall, spread her thighs, grab her hair, and your..."

Along with the seductive words, some erotic scenes began flashing through Carl's mind, as though everything in her head could easily become reality as long as she turned around and left now.

She could indulge her desires wantonly on Hopp's body, without worrying about the moral boundaries in her heart or thinking about the future. This suspicious passageway would have nothing more to do with them either.

In only a moment, Carl's breathing became labored.

She gradually turned around, as though she would sprint toward Hopp in the next instant and satisfy the overflowing desires of a teenage boy, just as the voice in her mind had urged.

Beneath the mask, Carl's gaze flickered.

But just as her foot was about to step forward, faint psionic fluctuations spread outward from between her brows. The voice gradually weakened before finally disappearing.

"Could an ancient demon be sealed here?"

Carl shuddered all over. After her consciousness returned to clarity, she could not help feeling shaken.

Fortunately, she had gained an increase in psionic power in the Dream World by resisting the desires in her heart. Otherwise, she might have fallen into the trap just now.

"Activate the auto-breathing system!"

At Carl's command, the mechanism in the Power Armor's helmet activated. A bubble made according to the principles of an Underwater Breathing Cap filled the inner layer of the helmet, blocking out the external air.

After standing there for a moment, Carl deduced that her strange condition just now had been caused by inhaling some of the black mist.

Having understood this, Carl did not dare delay and sprinted straight toward the depths of the passageway.

The thing inside doesn't want me to enter, which means it knows it can't beat me. Besides, I've already inhaled its black mist, yet it only dared use my lust to drive me away instead of directly controlling me. Either this thing is still sealed, or it no longer has any greater power!

After passing through layers of black mist, Carl soon arrived at the Ritual Site at the end of the passageway.

Seeing a similar design again, Carl inexplicably felt a moment of panic.

Fortunately, once she saw the arrangements here clearly, her mind settled down.

Goblins' corpses all over the ground, a Grotesque Aberration in the middle of being transformed, and the Blackstone Greatsword in the center of the Ritual Site... It looks like the tribe above was originally made up of normal goblins. Then this Blackstone Greatsword awakened, lured the goblins here, and transformed them into Grotesque Aberrations.

Based on the scene before her, Carl roughly deduced what had happened.

Carl brought her hands together in front of herself, recited a spell, and formed a specific hand sign with her fingers.

As though it had sensed danger, the Blackstone Greatsword at the center of the Ritual Site actually withdrew the black mist that had filled the passageway, injecting all of it into the newborn Grotesque Aberration.

But it was still too slow.

Before the monster could hatch, Carl had already finished casting the spell.

Magic Missile

The name of the spell flashed through her mind. Carl flung out her arm, sending three glinting darts formed from magical force flying out. Under her control, they struck the Blackstone Greatsword simultaneously.

"Crack!"

Dense fractures spread across the Blackstone Greatsword, and thick black mist seeped out through the cracks in its body.

"Damn you! Human! You ruined my plans!!!"

A shrill voice rang out in Carl's consciousness. The mass of black mist completely broke free from the Blackstone Greatsword and burrowed into the body of the Grotesque Aberration.

The Aberration's body twisted, then suddenly exploded, transforming into tendrils that wrapped around the goblin corpses scattered around it.

Before Carl could step forward to stop them, the tendrils had already dragged the goblin corpses together into a mass of flesh.

Disgusting slime flowed from the mass. When it dripped onto the ground, it actually began emitting white smoke.

Acid synthesized from the stomach acid in the goblins' stomachs? Damn it, I'm out of Spell Slots. I can only use normal attacks now.

Not expecting the enemy to be capable of a second transformation, Carl hurriedly activated the Repeating Crossbow on her arm and launched an attack forward.

Because of the way the thing inhabiting the Blackstone Greatsword had acted earlier, she had thought that destroying the sword it inhabited would be enough to defeat it.

She had not expected it to be capable of temporarily changing bodies.

Still, judging from its current behavior, this strange thing should only be able to inhabit objects affected by demonic power. Otherwise, I should be the one it most wants to possess.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..."

The magical bolts struck the huge ball of flesh one after another.

But aside from punching holes in its surface, they did not seem to weaken its vitality in the slightest.

"I could have been born in a more advanced form..."

The voice rang out in her consciousness again as the ball of flesh suddenly began to rotate.

"I'll corrode you into a demon's slave, then use your body to make that Tiefling give birth to countless offspring for me! That will make up for my deficiencies!"

The enemy's voice still lingered in her consciousness, but the ball of flesh rolled toward Carl with unstoppable momentum.

"Wha—fuck!"

Carl did not turn and flee. Instead, she seized the opportunity, thrust both arms of the Power Armor into the ball of flesh as it charged, then used its forward momentum to execute a shoulder throw.

"Thud!"

Carl's arms tore free from the ball of flesh, and she watched helplessly as it crashed to the ground.

The goblin corpses had not completely fused together yet. The impact scattered them apart, revealing the mass of tendrils wrapped inside.

Having seen the true core, Carl immediately activated the lightning emitter on her chest. Brilliant electric light illuminated the Ritual Site—once, twice, three times.

The black-mist parasite had already been knocked senseless by the fall and had not yet recovered. Its body spasmed with every flash of electricity.

Carl had originally planned to fire a few more shots from the Repeating Crossbow, but the acid on the surface of the ball of flesh had corroded some of its components when she performed the shoulder throw.

With no other choice, Carl kept attacking the enemy with the lightning emitter on her chest while personally tearing the tendrils away from the core one by one.

Suddenly, the black mist began escaping from the mass of flesh at the very center of the tendril cluster.

Seeing this, Carl hurriedly retreated.

One person and one mass of mist fell into a standoff, but the black mist seemed to be gradually shrinking because it had lost the source of its host.

It definitely wants to seize my body.

That thought flashed through Carl's mind. She reached into the Bag of Holding and gripped one of the Khyber Dragonshards inside.

Sure enough, once the black mist had shrunk to a certain size, the impending dissipation of its existence made its consciousness stop considering the side effects of directly possessing Carl. Instead, it spiraled through the air and shot toward her.

At that moment, Carl took out the Khyber Dragonshard and activated it with magic power.

Blue-violet light burst forth. The black mist flying toward her was like Demon King Piccolo encountering the Evil Containment Wave—it was sucked inside by the binding field released by the Dragon Crystal.