A light, steady step resonated through the cave; the hunter's walk, despite being steady, was slow. In his hand was the rest of the healing potion; he took what was left in the flask.
The burns didn't disappear, but his body certainly felt better. His body was completely exposed; his fear of falling unconscious to the floor from the pain caused by his clothes touching his skin made him reluctant.
'It's not worth keeping the spells any longer. The best thing will be to use everything I have against the boss,' he thought as he walked up the stairs.
He trembled when he reached the end of the stairs; his hand touched the stone in front of him, the same as the others.
"The dungeon boss's door is in front of you. Do you want to open the room?"
"Yes. No."
The young man's throat dried immediately; a faltering finger approached the system screen and clicked "Yes"; after all, it was the only way out.
Soon the stone moved to one side, leaving the path clear. Adriel entered the room and the stone closed his only exit from the boss room.
He seemed to be inside a dome made of stone; glowing mushrooms revealed the monstrosity in the center.
An aberration. Something strange moved in an unbridled and erratic way.
It had a lump of flesh as its main body and a disgusting lump that seemed to be its head; all over its body were arms of irregular sizes.
On its main body there were also white pieces resembling teeth, embedded in random areas; nothing about it made sense.
Its skin was the color of someone being asphyxiated, purple, one too murky.
One of its arms passed near a wall; without putting apparent force, it was destroyed. The rock fell on the creature, but it didn't flinch.
'What the fuck is that?' The hunter could only think.
It was gigantic, two meters of pure irregularity and strangeness.
Adriel's breathing stopped as if that act would reveal his position instantly; his hand trembled as he raised it and pointed at the main body of that thing. Lightning formed at the tips of his fingers; soon his attack shot out. 'Ha... I have to start with an advantage...'
"WRGAWRDA," an unintelligible and horrible scream came from the aberration, its arms moved senselessly.
That strange body convulsed for several seconds until something resembling eyes saw Adriel. "Grwasd." Sounds of someone drowning came from the creature, though it didn't seem to be in distress.
Its arms tried to reach the hunter, but he was disgusted upon seeing its hands; he quickly ran to one side of the dome, getting closer and dodging the arms; then he pointed a finger at the aberration.
"Water Spell." Upon saying that, water at impressive pressure came out of his hand, but the thing's body didn't flinch. 'Didn't it scream too much when I hit it with my lightning?'
The buzzing of something cutting the air resonated in Adriel's left ear, but that was very fast, too fast, with no time to react, he received the blow fully.
"!!Crack!!" The sound of bones breaking was all Adriel was able to hear, an intense pain took over his left side.
Looking down, he saw a familiar landscape: his arm was completely destroyed from the elbow down, his bones crushed.
"!!!Ahhhhhrggraa!!!" Adriel began to scream like crazy, tears fell down his cheeks upon feeling such pain.
He concentrated magic in his fingers again, launching another lightning bolt. That electric current traveled at a speed impossible to perceive; a deep hole and a horrible burn were created on the surface of the aberration's purple skin, revealing a green liquid.
'Did I damage it?' he could barely think as he watched that thing writhe again and scream.
'The pressurized water spell didn't do damage, but my small lightning bolt did? Why?'
Suddenly, in his desperation, he could see something.
He could barely stand up, jumped to dodge a hand, and used his dash to dodge two others. His entire palm pointed at the main body.
"Fire Spell."
The fiery ball flew with speed at the aberration, impacting it fully.
It screamed from the overwhelming pain; the green liquid began to come out while its purple skin was charred. 'It's weak to fire... It's weak to fire!!'
Before taking advantage of this window, two arms of the aberration shot out toward Adriel and impaled him against the wall, piercing through his shoulders and breaking the bone.
Other hands approached slowly because of the pain, pointing directly at Adriel's hip.
"!!Damn crazy thing!!" Without thinking, he began to use the wind spell, one, two, three times.
Blood splattered each time those blades struck the aberration, and its hands tensed, but they didn't stop.
Soon they reached the hunter's hip and began to separate both parts. He didn't stop. His blades cut that thing again and again without rest: six uses.
His torso and legs were completely separated; one last blade from Adriel crossed the air with speed and impacted the aberration.
A lake of beautiful, bright red blood joined both parts of Adriel's body; his eyes were narrowed, ready to die definitively.
'I-I'm scared... I don't want... To die.' He thought faintly, barely alive.
[Congratulations, you have killed a crazy (Aberration). Phase: Initial. Category: {Unique}. Description: An aberration with {Unique} class fell into madness inside this dungeon, becoming the origin and boss. An aberration with an almost impenetrable layer of skin, only weak to heat; under that skin it has softer but equally hard flesh.]
[The wish of the [wish creator] Xyphor has been fulfilled, all wounds of living humans (originally 8.300 billion people) have been healed (now 3.000 billion)]
[The condition to end the wish of the [Wish Creator] Xyphor has been fulfilled, the first phase has returned to normal]
Adriel felt how blood returned to his body, his hip rejoined his torso and his arm returned to normal; added to this, his burns disappeared, leaving his skin white and new.
[Important changes in the phase: All creatures of phase 1 or Initial are once again capable of using skills and resonance. Fauna becomes active again in the first phase (one trillion square kilometers). The chirality of food returns to normal.]
[The now human champion, Adriel, has been the first human to assassinate a being of category: {Unique}]
Upon reading all this, the young man's mind went blank. 3.000 billion? It returns to normal? One trillion square kilometers?
He was barely able to think, to understand that he didn't die. What was all that? He was simply unable to grasp it; he was in horrible shock.
"5.300 billion humans have died... That includes Nico..."
He leaned against the wall; his mind wandered into nothingness. He wasn't sad; he felt a little bad about it, but what could he do? "I've always been like this."
'They're probably 5,299,999,999 strangers, I don't know who they were, it's not like I'm interested in knowing.'
His cheek touched the cold of the stone wall. 'It'll definitely keep me somewhat pensive... I suppose.'
'When a stranger dies... What does it matter to me? I didn't kill them, why feel bad for others when I almost died myself.'
He sighed and stood up; his legs trembled uncontrollably. He summoned a vanity clothing item, a plain white shirt and blue pants, nothing out of this world.
He summoned his scythe and approached the new corpse with a tremendous feeling of achievement and happiness; he cut the inner flesh for a while before finding something: a ball, a reward.
Upon grabbing it and pulling it out, he saw the system message.
[Companion [Panther of the Flat Valley]. Phase: Initial. Category: {Unique} A panther from a faraway place measures three meters in height and is capable of shrinking down to two meters. In length it measures nine meters.]
Adriel's eyes lit up upon seeing this; now he was only happy and proud of his great achievement. He stored the item and continued inspecting the place. 'I'd better not summon it right now; that thing won't fit here.
He felt a small pang of guilt. —"Why don't you care? They were humans too, even if you didn't know them, you should have empathy for them."
'But I can't…' A normal comment when they saw the death of someone important in the industry of something that was said to Adriel; his answer never came because he didn't feel comfortable saying it out loud.
A longer sigh left his mouth, as he looked at the dungeon rock. 'I feel bad... I think going with the others would be a good idea; what would stop me on my way?'
A small doubt was planted in his heart as he thought about that last part. 'Did the system say that now monsters have resonance and skills?'