Confused Cave Lord

The cracks in the Cave Lord's body revealed not flesh.

But an ominous, deep blue light.

It raised its head and let out a roar completely different from before.

The sound was filled with pure will to destroy, no longer mere despair.

"ROAR--!"

Deep blue flames erupted from the giant axe in its hand.

Forming a ring of fire that continuously expanded.

Encompassing an area dozens of meters around.

[Despair Flame Ring]: The Cave Lord detonates the despair energy accumulated within its body, forming a sustained destructive flame ring that deals 50 points of shadow flame damage per second to all enemies within range, and applies the [Panic] effect (reduces attack and defense by 10%).

Those fearless Steel Skeletons, frantically attacking, touched the deep blue flame ring, and the same flames immediately ignited on their bodies, their health dropping at a visible rate.

"-45HP!"

"-37HP!"

A flurry of damage numbers densely appeared above the skeletons' heads.

In just a few dozen seconds, the innermost dozen Steel Skeletons turned into a pile of scorched, shattered iron.

Even more troublesome.

Within the Cave Lord's hollow eye sockets, two clusters of deep blue Soul Fire also ignited.

It suddenly raised its giant axe.

No longer swinging wildly, but precisely locking onto a Steel Skeleton a short distance away.

On the axe blade, a solid beam of deep blue light shot out instantly!

[Soul Devouring Ray]: The Cave Lord condenses the power of its Soul Fire, firing a penetrating ray that deals 500 points of shadow damage to a single target, with a chance to directly annihilate the soul (effectiveness increased against dark-type summons).

"SWISH--!"

That Steel Skeleton didn't even have time to react before it was pierced through by the ray, instantly turning to dust and dissipating, not even a bone fragment left!

"Interesting. Finally, it's not just tickling anymore."

Lin Mu stood in the distance.

Watching his meticulously modified Steel Skeletons fall like wheat before a scythe.

There was no panic on his face; instead, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

After the Cave Lord entered its second form, its attack desire and methods became much more ferocious and lethal.

"But, playing with fire in front of me?"

Lin Mu's gaze sharpened, and his talent [Description Tamperer] activated!

He quickly locked onto the description of [Despair Flame Ring].

"Change 'deals 50 points of shadow flame damage per second' to 'deals 50 points of shadow flame damage per day'!" Deals 500 points of shadow damage to a single target

In an instant.

The deep blue flame ring, which had been radiating an aura of destruction, suddenly faltered in its brilliance.

Then, an extremely gentle but still somewhat eerie deep blue flame spread out.

The damage numbers appearing above the heads of the covered skeletons changed!

"-1HP!"

And then it stopped!

Fifty points of damage per day, converted to damage per second, was almost negligible.

Although the [Panic] effect still remained.

That sustained high damage had turned into intermittent forced health loss!

The Cave Lord seemed to sense something was wrong.

It looked blankly at the giant axe in its hand.

Then knocked it on the ground beside it a couple of times, as if to make sure the axe wasn't broken.

It looked again at the skeletons still moving around it, a huge question mark filling its massive head.

"Roar?"

It let out another confused, low growl.

Raised its giant axe, preparing to activate [Soul Devouring Ray]!

Lin Mu keenly seized this opportunity.

His talent activated, and he once again locked onto the Cave Lord's [Soul Devouring Ray].

"Change 'deals 500 Shadow damage to a single target' to 'deals 500 Shadow damage to a liquid target'!"

Upon the [Cave Lord]'s axe blade, another solid azure beam shot forth instantly!

"Whoosh--!"

The nearest Steel Skeleton, without even time to react, was struck by the ray and turned into...

No reaction at all!

"Oh ho?"

The [Cave Lord] was genuinely baffled this time.

"[Bone Tooth]!"

Lin Mu seized the chance and raised his finger again.

Hundreds of bone teeth glinting with cold light poured toward the Cave Lord's face!

This time, Lin Mu's target was no longer the hard bone armor, but the Soul Fire flickering in its eye sockets!

"-1HP!"

"-1HP!"

"-1HP!"

The Soul Fire in the Cave Lord's eye sockets was struck by the bone teeth.

A series of crisp sounds like glass shattering rang out, and the flickering became extremely unstable.

Under the pain, it let out a furious roar.

Brandishing its giant axe, it madly hacked at the surrounding skeletons.

But without the sustained damage of [Despair Flame Ring] and the ineffective [Soul Devouring Ray], these simple normal attacks, faced with the endlessly replenishing tide of Steel Skeletons, had already lost much of their killing efficiency.

Lin Mu continued to stand leisurely in the distance.

While commanding the skeletons to swarm fearlessly, he also summoned new skeletons from time to time to fill the gaps.

At the same time, [Bone Tooth] came like it cost nothing, wave after wave aimed at the Cave Lord's Soul Fire.

Although each single bone tooth's damage was still a forced 1 HP deduction, it couldn't withstand the sheer quantity and high frequency!

Even ants could gnaw an elephant to death!

The Cave Lord's remaining health of over four thousand, under Lin Mu's relentless attrition tactics, began to drop again.

Three thousand... two thousand... one thousand...

Time ticked by, minute by minute.

Inside the stone hall, only the fearless charge of the Steel Skeletons remained, along with the Cave Lord's increasingly feeble roars.

Finally, "Crack--"

A clear shattering sound rang out.

The two azure flames of Soul Fire in the Cave Lord's eye sockets, like broken glass, completely dimmed and extinguished.

Its massive body stiffened abruptly, the giant axe in its hand clattering to the ground with a "clang,"

then, like a mountain collapsing, it crashed down.

[Killed LV.10 Lord-class Boss—Cave Lord!]

[Necromancer Lin Mu's level increased to LV.9!]

[Surface monsters in the dungeon have been cleared. Forced exit from the dungeon in five minutes.]

[Dungeon overall rating—SS]

As the Boss fell.

Blue, purple, and golden light coalesced beside its corpse.

They condensed into several items radiating different lusters.

Lin Mu let out a long, relieved breath.

A faint, unburdened smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"I still wasn't cautious enough! I should have waited another day, until the number of Resurrect Skeletons and Bone Teeth reached nine hundred, before challenging it!"

Though the battle had seemed effortless on the surface, his mind had been razor-focused the entire time.

After all, he was facing a Lord-tier Boss whose level far surpassed his own.

One misstep, and the entire game could have been lost.

But since he had already cleared the dungeon's monsters, yet only earned an SS rating—

Lin Mu couldn't help recalling the "surface monsters" mentioned in the earlier prompt.

For a moment, he couldn't make sense of it.

So he hurried over to pick up the equipment dropped by the [Cave Lord].