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Chapter 69: The Lore Eater

<You’re in the presence of the Honored Outsider while leading a boss battle! Would you like to play thematic music?>

“Yes, please.” Hannah didn’t care too much about the orchestral soundtrack.

Zarian would like it, at the very least.

She, however, was frankly in shock.

After having a breezy walk through the library maze, hearing distant monsters roaming, some of which they hadn’t fought before, Hannah was prepared to face the worst. The boss of the Devouring Librarian Dungeon was horrifying, certainly the worst thing she’d ever seen.

That wasn’t the most shocking part. The design of the boss arena was a great equalizer to the challenge, which surprised Hannah the most.

Still, she couldn’t only focus on the arena’s hidden mechanisms. The entire arena was an elevated stage that overlooked the maze. True to the recent notifications, there was no going back down the stairs and reentering the maze, even if Hannah would like more time for preparation.

Countless sheets of paper barred the way back with more of that wormy and warped magic. More of the same surrounded the perimeter of the stage. There was nowhere else to go now.

The dungeon core floated above while lit by magic spotlights beaming from the far rafters. It hung like a judge to the event that was unfolding.

“For this one, Hannah, I’d like to involve myself more,” Zarian said. “It’s more Dark Souls than even the fight with Reiki. No offense.”

Reiki didn’t look offended. Instead, she looked determined. Her many spider eyes looked hungrily at their latest and greatest foe.

The skeletons spread out while staying near the staircase. Roller waited patiently for a new directive, and the spectral spiders were heading out while invisible and intangible.

Hannah took the position at the front. She was stuck between two worlds. The design of the boss arena was a great equalizer that favored Hannah. But the boss itself was a nightmare like no other.

The boss unraveled from around itself three dozen tentacles and feelers attached to an immense dark blue ball of flesh. The creature squirmed from its slumber slowly, barely fazed by the presence of its would-be killers. Why would anything faze it when it was the size of several hot air balloons fully inflated?

Worse yet, the creature pulsed with magic that sent it rising off the arena floor, spiraling lazily at first, eyes slowly opening to behold the sacrificial challengers of its twisted game. Its dozens of yellowish eyes rolled in their sockets. A mouth filled with giant ivory teeth and fangs opened so large it could eat an entire public bus.

Then the creature’s round face scrunched with hunger and malice in their direction.

Zarian used Identify and said aloud what he saw:

<Devoxklix the Lore Eater, Level 57 Dungeon Boss, Best Alpha Skill: Devouring Force of Spells and Memories.>

The Lore Eater roared, angered by Zarian’s Identify. Not everyone felt it, but the Lore Eater certainly did. Its gaze swept over all of them wrathfully.

The music turned menacing, gothic, and dark as the Lore Eater slowly centered his focus on Hannah. Something magical reached for her, invading her.

Then she felt another magical force sweep in, this one more familiar. There was a crackle, pop, and strange jolts inside and outside of her, making Hannah shiver. It was like two forces held a miniature battle inside her aura.

“No, no, no.” Zarian wagged a finger at the monstrous boss. “You don’t get to do that with my enchantress.”

Before Hannah could ask what Zarian had prevented, the Lore Eater bellowed. It had a voluminous voice that reminded her of a jet engine trying to speak.

“Worthless trash!” The dungeon boss shouted. “I am the unbeatable Lore Eater, keeper of secrets, ruler of all knowledge I’ve consumed from the minds and souls of those who dare trespass in my dungeon! You cannot prevent me from undoing you!”

“Hannah, tell him ‘We don’t care. We’re taking everything you got with interest,’” Zarian advised.

Hannah repeated his words loudly, staying committed even if she felt silly. She was unsurprised by the boss’s response.

“You crass and thoughtless wench! You’ve invaded my inner sanctum without proper offering and brought another dungeon boss who does not serve me! For this, I curse you! For this, I will devour you! For this, I will use your knowledge to bring torment to all who you love and hold dear!”

Hannah tensed up, doing her best not to shiver. She could feel the raw power of the dungeon boss pressing down on her. Being that it was a rare Level 57 creature while also intelligent made this battle even scarier.

However, she didn’t let her fear cloud her judgment. The demigod behind her was much scarier. And she knew he was ready to go.

“Zarian, dear, can you serve as my fighter?” Hannah paused, making a quick judgment call. “Try to keep to a Tier 2 range of power so you can derive some fun from this. I’m sure you can kill this creature in one hit otherwise.”

In Hannah’s opinion, Zarian’s true power was somewhere between Tier 3 and Tier 4. He was monstrous and capable of widespread destruction. The more he grew, the more he would have to learn to hold back compared to everyone else around his level, unless he wanted to annihilate all challenges.

Zarian was also the type to get bored without challenges.

She risked looking away from the dungeon boss. She saw a sharp smile split across Zarian’s face before he said, “Nah, it would take seven hits, maybe six at the lowest. Still, that would be too fast. Let’s draw this out.”

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He was downplaying himself. She knew Zarian had selected his Level 40 First Class Advancement. She was certain he was vastly more powerful now.

She couldn’t ask because it would be rude, in a sense, since he was concealing it for a reason. Maybe he was waiting for her to hit Level 40 before revealing the truth.

I will get there with this boss fight!

Zarian bounced up and down on the balls of his feet. He shifted ahead of Hannah, his cloak flapping dramatically with no wind.

Watching him, a last-minute idea came to Hannah’s mind. She made the request, and Zarian provided her with more powerful boons. Nine dark swords appeared in each of the skeletons’ hands except for Loner.

Hannah quickly pushed her Enchantment +1 skill to affect each sword. Doing it this way spent aura quickly and inefficiently while not using runic devices as mediums. She relied on speed since the pre-battle time window was drawing to a close.

She gave each sword a set of runes that reinforced, sharpened, and made them elementally conducive. Dark swords held by Flamer and others lit up, crackled, and whirred with their respective elements. The result fused multiple abilities together to enhance the battle abilities of the advancing skeletons.

It was a bit selfish to pull more power from Zarian while asking him to handicap himself. But Hannah was inclined to think Zarian could handle all that just fine.

He didn’t complain. He winked back at her instead, showing nothing but confidence.

The boss watched all of this with hate roiling in its many-eyed gaze. Its tentacles snapped around while on beat with the threatening music. “You dare think yourselves capable of defeating me! Let me disabuse you of such worthless thoughts, you imbeciles!”

The pre-battle time window ended.

Time to fight.

“Go, go, Zarian!” Hannah shouted as the music spiked with intensity and tempo.

Zarian shot forward with a ferocity that was powerful, his Parasite Cloak fluttering like a tattered and murderous eldritch flag. His steps erased the distance fast, almost in a bestial manner, as he moved with a forward tilt that had him dashing in low.

He looked like a blurred out human streak of black and red zooming across the arena floor.

The boss arena was wider than a stadium. For Zarian, it might as well be a trip across the street.

Hannah held out her hand and gestured for everyone else to hold back. Reiki, Loner, and the other skeletons looked eager to fight. Thankfully, they waited as Hannah watched the first exchange of combat.

The Lore Eater traded away insults for an array of magic that charged up in its gaping maw. Hannah felt her heart clench as different colored orbs flashed, glimmered, and pulsated in a wide elemental variety. Then the Lore Eater’s attack came down at Zarian as a continuous volley of beams.

Red hot fire. Yellow and thunderous lightning. Dark blue ice. Gray and fast wind. Purple and mysterious mist. Glimmering glass. Conjured rock. Relentless melted steel. Bright light. And so much more.

Hannah could barely tell them apart as the vibrant multi-beam-assault slammed onto the floor with an arena-shaking quake. The music rose with titillating glee to match the roaring torrent of multi-cast spells.

Hannah nearly fell over from the powerful shaking, but Reiki caught her. Loner and Roller rode out the vibrations well enough while the other skeletons fell and tripped over each other.

Regaining her composure, Hannah lowered her goggles over her eyes to eliminate the excess light and see smaller details from further away. She noticed a flying figure swooping around the boss’s flank and away from the multi-spell cataclysm blasting into the floor.

The aerial figure was Zarian, and Hannah wasn’t the only one to notice.

Multiple yellow eyes rolled in their sockets as the boss kept track of the daring wizard. Whipping tentacles, some nearly as thick as railroad cars, glowed with haunting purple magic.

The boss kept blasting out its torrent of numerous spells, spiraling in the direction Zarian flew to catch him in the magical uproar. Meanwhile, the Lore Eater’s giant tentacles whipped and snapped like rapid thunderclaps at Zarian to smack him down from the air.

Hannah trembled as she watched Zarian and Para swoop around, juke aside, and stay a split second ahead of the boss. The room for error was so small Hannah wanted to shout and tell Zarian to go all out. She held back because there was a point that Zarian was making.

He shouldn’t have to do it all by himself. I’m capable! She just needed to prove it.

Hannah pushed Level 0 Tranquil Mind for all it was worth. She watched Zarian move like a jet fighter around the boss’s incredible attacks. She flinched when Zarian showed signs of imperfection. A tentacle whip clipped the wings formed out of the Parasite Cloak and sent him spiraling.

He brushed the edge of the boss’s roaring torrent of multi-cast spells. He suffered burning, freezing, electrocution, and more. But he didn’t fall completely.

He corrected himself to go on his own offensive, skimming past the roaring torrent of spells, and past the relentless thunder cracks of snapping tentacles. He slashed a deep gouge across the boss’s face and several eyes with a curved blade of darkness that was fifteen feet long.

He struck right when the music took a dramatic turn, like a rallying cry in favor of a man facing a horrible titan. The dungeon boss shut its mouth, cutting off the multi-spell beams, and jerked back in pain.

The Lore Eater snapped out tentacles in a desperate frenzy that was even wilder and faster than before. Now the battle began in earnest as Zarian took on the brunt of soloing the boss and holding its attention.

The boss wouldn’t pay attention to what Hannah was doing until it was too late.

“Okay, let’s go,” Hannah said. “Loner, Reiki, provide Zarian back up at a distance. Use this, Loner.”

She tossed him a prototype device that was more likely to fail than succeed. It looked like a thick, oblong piece of glassy obsidian covered in pale-blue runes while as long as a man’s forearm.

When Loner held it by the thicker end, it was easy to think of it as a wand. It was more like a focus medium, if anything.

“Aim and shoot with that. It’ll fail you two out of three times. Keep trying anyway,” Hannah explained.

Loner nodded.

Reiki flashed a savage spider grin on her pretty, many-eyed face. She gave a nod before patting Loner on the back.

The two ran toward the fight at a slower pace than Zarian. They didn’t need to join the melee.

Loner aimed the runic wand and succeeded on his first attempt, shooting a powerful vibrating bolt at the boss monster. Reiki pranced and spiraled with her steps, conjuring her magic to shoot bolts of web and force. They struck the side of the boss.

The damage wasn’t heavy. But every bit helped. They stayed mobile, too, avoiding a singular beam shot back in retaliation at them. Then they repeated their efforts to serve as a distant distraction, easing the burden on Zarian.

Hannah looked up further and saw the fight between Zarian and the boss maneuvering around the arena, Loner and Reiki trailing at range. Now the boss battle was more frantic and messy, with the music changing erratically to serve as a perfect match.

The Lore Eater snapped its immense jaws for a killer bite. It whirled around in a cyclone maneuver that swung its many tentacles fast and hard. It shot out salvos of elementary spell beams. The boss even warped the surrounding air with a force that was dangerous and manipulative.

Zarian swooped, juked, and slashed his giant sword through it all. Twin jets of darkness thrust from his feet while the Parasite Cloak served as his wings.

Even during the brightest moments when the Lore Eater released a great barrage of spells, Zarian remained ahead by the skin of his teeth, pushing the tempo, keeping the immense dungeon boss stressed.

Hills of piled books, towering bookcases filled with giant volumes, and interesting treasures that had lost their luster over the many centuries dominated the Lore Eater’s space. None of that interested Hannah compared to the hidden objects of power set around the boss arena like traps waiting to be sprung.

“Let’s do our part,” Hannah said, leading the skeletons and Roller.

The Lore Eater had no idea how bad it was for Hannah to be here. If Zarian was the overpowered wizard, then Hannah was the greatest weakness to dungeon bosses like the Lore Eater.