It was ultimately very tedious.
I've begun using the glowing fluorescent stones from the cave so the mana problem was fixed. But ultimately I have come to the conclusion that there is no boss monster. Despite what insight says this is the truth.
After fully exploring the ant's-nest-like first floor and spreading my spores everywhere, no matter how hard I looked there was nothing here other than chimera monsters.
Several days had probably passed since the system's challenge began.
It was hard to say if there was a deadline, but I wasn't going to linger around and potentially endanger my life.
Time dragged on as I cleaned the floor of chimeras. With the fluorescent lights in place, I didn't even need to use mana anymore. With the fluorescent light in place, I didn't even use mana anymore. Just walking around producing acid and poison gas was enough.
But no matter how many I killed, there seemed to be no end.
Where were they coming from?
Suddenly, I felt compelled look up at the ceiling that was covered in mist.
Wind magic swept the mist away and what was behind it was just a normal earth ceiling.
At this point, I couldn't tell if what I was feeling was paranoia or a genuine warning from insight.
For the following days I tried multiple methods to mass kill the monsters in one sweep. From using creation magic to create gasoline and lighting the whole place up, to casting a curse on everything, I did everything. I tried digging the place up, blessed myself with luck and redid the fire thing, and filled the place with poison and acid.
But the monsters would come back every time. I'd think I finally finished them all, but then after a day they would all come back. It was as if they were popping out from nowhere.
Maybe, there was a boss monster and it was just hiding in the earth. I just needed to dig deeper and deeper.
Or maybe it was actually hiding in the mist. But that didn't make sense. How are you supposed to hide when I sweep the mist away?
Wait, maybe the opponent I'm facing is super fast so they run away right before I blow the mist.
Immediately I started lowering the temperature of the place. Then an idea struck me.
A section of the earth opened up into a large room. The walls of the room were reinforced with a metal made with creation magic. Wind magic pulled in mist into the room and gravity magic condensed the mist. Slowly mist piled up inside the room till I couldn't condense anymore.
But unexpectedly, they didn't turn into water droplets.
Now that they were inside the room, the mist looked faintly red. I had always assumed the place's color made it appear that way, not that the mist was actually red.
Perhaps it was a mist of blood, which would explain the color.
A dark and red sphere appeared in my hand and the opening of the room shrunk. The sphere went in through the opening that grew smaller and smaller.
I waited a bit and opened the earth again. The inside was pulverized.
It seemed there was nothing in this section of mist.
I repeated the process several times, pausing each time to return to the cave and absorb more mana. After a while, when I became sure there was no more mist left I stopped.
This time it was a failure too. What was I thinking, going around believing that some boss could be hidden in the mist?
The headache's been getting worse. At this point I wasn't afraid from the white figure anymore. I was afraid that I'd die from the headache.
I was already dead from my illness and I was going to die again by a headache. Or maybe I should call it corruption.
No, no, don't be pessimistic. I still needed to try.
But what more was there to do?
My consciousness faded away and I drifted into sleep. Before I fell asleep I could see a new layer of mist forming.
I jolted awake when the system spoke, "Boss room of the first floor of God's dungeon. Mist Apparatus"
I looked around and realized my surroundings had completely changed. I was no longer inside the closed-off space of the cave but standing beneath an open sky.
The sky was blood-red. I stood atop a massive floating island, a grey temple rising at its center. Mist clung to the land in patches, and chimera monsters crawled across the terrain.
The mist... oh.
Hahhahahaha
The only way to get into the boss room was the enter the mist.
No wonder insight kept tugging me towards the mist!
At that moment a massive spider-like chimera crawled out of the temple. With each step, a small chimera dropped from its bosom. Mist swirled around it, like it had a will of its own.
This must be the boss.
But I no longer had the urge to play or stick around to look at its ugly face.
My mana was nearly depleted, but that no longer mattered.
I lunged forward, my vine, slick with poison, whipping toward the chimera.
Suddenly a danger signal erupted in my heart and I was immediately engulfed in mist. The next thing I know I was falling from a pool of mist into an empty expanse of sky.
The island covered in mist flew past me and I fell further and further.
I got too impatient and attacked it without care.
My body shifted and a leaf from my vine quickly grew into the shape of a hot air balloon. The speed at which I descended slowed.
A small platform hung from the balloon. On it, I quickly grew a few dried bark, tore it and threw them into a pile to lit up.
The last drops of mana inside me gathered and fire started on the pile. Hot air lifted the balloon up, and we rose towards the island covered in mist above us.
But at this point, the balloon could pass by the island without coming close enough. I need a way to steer it, but how do you stir a hot air balloon?
I don't remember anything about it aside from a balloon, a platform, and it using hot air to rise.
Think, think.
The island was coming closer and closer but the balloon was heading right into a mist.
A fish!
How does a fish move forward in water? Using its fin!
A fin shaped leaf appeared in the back of the platform. I began trying to propel the balloon away from the mist and toward the island. But the moment the fin swung left, the balloon spun out of control and was swept away towards the mist.
At the last second a vine shot towards the island and I jumped off from the balloon.
The vine couldn't reach the island and I began falling.
The vine morphed into the shape of paper crane, and what used to be my main body was severed, left to fall into the endless red sky.
With the last stretch the paper crane flew towards the base of the island. I morphed again and finally landed on its edge.
Multiple vines began growing and stretched upwards. They quickly pulled me up and I landed on top of the island. My vine stretched into the sky and cut through the mist into the ground.
So as long as a part of my body remained outside the mist, it was safe.
With that a root lodged into the ground and I ran into the mist towards the temple.
I came to the place where I first landed upon entering the boss room. A vine quickly swept the mist away.
The chimera came into my sight.
A vine shot towards it. The mist around it came to block my vine and its offspring chimeras could be felt biting on to the vine that stretched towards my root. But it was instantly caught in my vine and the sound of it being crushed could be heard amidst the mist.
"Congrats, you've completed the first floor. The system will initiate update."