Chapter 534 Looting The Bandits And... A Boss Battle?!
SLAAASH!
"GYYAAAHH…!"
Darkbound ran forward, swinging his enormous black sword, his size and power were truly phenomenal. A fell swoop of his sword easily cut into halves any bandit that got closer. But he wasn\'t going to let the others don\'t get any action, as Syllis and his rabbit kin warriors surrounded the other bandits and slaughtered them in unison, earning shared EXP efficiently.
As the twelve corpses were lying over the floor after just a few seconds of finding this group, the ice quickly began to grow over their bodies as the accessories activated. We made sure to place each corpse in separate places, so they didn\'t had the chance to merge into a big pile.
"ROOARRR!"
An icy wind quickly took over the entire room, as twelve Ice Golem Beasts emerged. Without further ado, we slaughtered them and crushed them with ease. This time I aided a bit with my Black Lightning Strike to shatter their ice and then the rest did the deed.
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
In half a minute, twelve ice golems were served in a plate.
The same happened in the other groups, they were slaughtered and then brought back to life through this strange curse. We easily dealt with them. While doing this, I relaxed and began to think how this curse exactly worked.
I had figured out most of what it was and how it did its trick, but what I couldn\'t comprehend completely is… why is this curse so complex? The only curses I can access to are those that lower stats, weakening someone, or sometimes paralyze them or something like that. They\'re very limited in what they can do.
Yet there\'s this Ice Curse that can do things as complex as turning dead bandits into Ice Golems… Is this really a curse or an intricate Magic Spell imbued into these accessories? Thankfully, I had managed to grab one myself. It was a beautiful ring with a snowflake-shaped blue jewel.
Out of pure curiosity, I decided to check its Status:
[Accursed Frozen Slave Ring (B+ Grade)]
[Effects]
[HP]: [+200]
[MP]: [+200]
[Attack]: [+100]
[Defense]: [+100]
[Magic]: [+100]
[Agility]: [+100]
[Abilities]
[Frozen Slave Curse]: Once the wielder\'s HP drops to zero, an automatic effect is triggered, transforming the user into an Undead Ice Golem Beast, boosting its power, and using the user\'s Skills as a base for its growth. In certain occasions, it might evolve and fuse with others to form a greater being.
Huh, for being B+ Grade in quality it gives some very low stat boosts, but I guess these boosts in stats were decent for these low-level trash tier bandits I suppose. Even more if they wore more than one. I am pretty sure I saw some wearing over five rings. Somehow, the Frost Queen can mass produce them and the Vampire aiding her gave them to these bandits in large quantities, telling them to use as many as they desire.
"I\'ll keep this one for later. I\'ll investigate the curse and try if I can find something that I could do with it… Maybe I could even find a cure for this curse." I wondered, quickly storing the ring inside the Inventory.
It wasn\'t a living being at the end, and it apparently wasn\'t being used as some sort of camera either, so storing it into the Inventory wasn\'t a hard thing at all.
When we were mostly finished, I quickly sent everyone to explore things and bring me whatever loot they could find, as I wandered with the two fire ghosts behind me in the last room where the Boss was.
The Boss himself wasn\'t even a threat, he died in a single swipe of my hands with a Black Lightning Strike, he was the highest level here, at Level 42, and even then I ended killing him so easily… I guess I\'ve really grown too strong. Evolution is overpowered compared to the humans capped level up, I can keep evolving and resetting my Level so I can continue leveling more and more.
Hell, my accumulated level should be way past a hundred by now. I guess if we consider this it is not so hard to believe I ended killing these guys way too easily.
"Ooh! So much gold! I\'ll buy so much with this, hehehehe…"
However, although I ended getting slightly flustered about what had happened, I still embraced my greediness, finding the boss secret stash of gold, a large hole in the cave covered by his desk. In there, I found almost a hundred doubloon of pure gold, which can be exchanged mostly anywhere for money.
Gold is still a rare material even in this world, especially now that it has become Magic Gold, which is an incredible catalyzer of magic, it is an essential item for most magic items, so it is highly priced everywhere. Bronze and Silver are the same, being magic conducting ores, they\'re very valuable, especially in the dwarven country which is so advanced that they need big quantities of it to continue fabricating their creations and technological advancements.
"That\'s certainly a lot of gold, milady." Silvio said at my side. "May I help you carry it all?"
"Ah, don\'t worry. Look at this! Boop!" I said, touching the gold as they all disappeared in an instant, stored in the Inventory.
"I-Incredible… Your Inventory Ability is really something completely out of this world!" Silvio admitted
"Yeah I guess it is the best part of-"
"Milady!"
Suddenly, I was called by the other fire ghost, Francesco, who was inspecting around, until he suddenly began touching a large wall.
"What?"
"I can\'t get through this wall… I simply… hit something very hard here." He said.
"What? But you\'re a ghost, it shouldn\'t be impossible to-"
I walked at his side and touched the wall trying to get through it.
But it was impossible.
"Wait what?!"
I quickly looked at the place, trying to get inside through my ghostly powers.
And nope, it was impossible.
"This place… is this a dungeon?" I wondered, raising an eyebrow.
"Perhaps there\'s an underground dungeon in this mountain as well! Do mountains always have dungeons inside of them?" Wondered Silvio.
"I don\'t have single clue, but let\'s try something…" I said with a smile.
Suddenly, I gathered a large quantity of chaotic and dark energies and fired it into a straight beam into the wall.
BAAAAAMMMM…!
RUMBLE!
The entire mountain shook for a bit, as the wall fell apart, revealing something… completely different than a dungeon.
It was a strange room imbued with a special magic that made it impossible for Phantasmal-type beings to get through.
Almost as if it were made as a countermeasure against me.
The gate leading there was destroyed by my super beam, and what was inside was an enormous altar, with what looked like a bird-shaped statue made of ice, within its chest, a glowing blue jewel shone brightly.
"The heck is this?" I asked, looking around.
"Milady, watch out!"
CLAAASH!
I quickly stepped back with the two ghosts, looking in front of me as the enormous, twenty-meter-big Ice Bird Statue… moved and fired an enormous icicle spear my way.
"CRAAAAAAHHH!"
The statue continued to move as if it were alive, flying outside the room it was confined, and freezing the entire Bandit Boss Room in a mere instant!