Smoke took out his flamdius sword and Armored Armadillo shield. He collapsed his spherical shield and placed it into his backpack window. He made a mental note to use it only on emergency situations.
Smoke didn't use any fire enhancement on his sword because he knew that it would be useless against the fire salamander.
He used his shield's Bash ability and stunned the fire salamander. He briskly went on top of the fire salamander and repeatedly plunged his flamdius sword on the back of the fire salamander's skull.
The captured fire salamander had 10% left on its lifebar, and finally broke free from the bullwhip.
It leapt and targeted Smoke's back. His Cunning of the Dire Fox alerted him from the monster's back attack and made him dodge in time.
The fire salamander flew past him. Smoke quickly went after the dying fire salamander and chopped its head off. The remaining fire salamander let out a shriek as all of its companions were killed.
The monster covered itself in flames and ran at top speed towards Smoke. The DarkElf held his Armored Armadillo shield firmly. He turned his shield to face the last fire salamander.
Smoke charged at the fire salamander and met the monster head on. He bashed the fire salamander's head with his shield and fluidly leapt on to its back.
He unequipped his Armored Armadillo Shield, and with both his hands on his flamdius sword, he started to carve out a hole on the fire salamander's back until it reached the monster's heart.
His flamdius sword pierced through the monster's heart and touched the ground. The fire salamander collapsed on the floor and died.
Panting hard, Smoke sat down on the labyrinth floor. He touched the floor and felt that it was warmer when compared with the hallway of the wolf spiders.
He surmised that these monsters must have had territories. He only met two species of monsters so far, but there was one type of monster that he was excited to see.
This labyrinth was famous for one thing, and that was for its killer Maneators. However, Smoke had not seen one in the past four hours that he had been inside the underground maze.
The map on his Beggar's tablet was updated with the new information from the tunnel. Before he pushed on.
Smoke thought to replenish his life with his medical soup, and do some experimentation with his equipments.
He created a transmutation circle that was needed in order to merge his desired object. He used four pieces of the white spider silk for enhancers and the bullwhip for the main ingredient.
With all the requirements completed, Smoke used his Item Transmutation ability.
+ Transmutation Completed:
Result: A stickier, longer bullwhip
Effects:
Hold ability increased by 5%.
Attack increases by 2%.
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The first enhancement from the transmutation was negligible, but if this process was repeated until all of his white spider silk are depleted, then the result would be significant.
His bullwhip's hold ability increased by 25% and its attack increased by 10%.
After he enhanced the bull whip. Smoke took out his electro stone, and started to rub the entire length of the bullwhip with the elemental stone.
Next he thought he needed a better way to stay on top of the ceiling aside from using his Chiropterra gloves. He checked on the items in his backpack window.
From the labyrinth alone, Smoke looted 60 white spider silk, 10 gold spider silk, and 2 fire salamander hides.
All 60 of his white spider silk was used on his transmutation with the bull whip.
He was left with 10 gold spider silk. He used the techniques that he learned from his two good friends in Nanahuatl. James Jackal and Howard Hide taught him how to craft equipments from monster hides.
He drew shapes on the fire salamander's hide, and started to cut the pelt. He stitched them up into his desired form.
It took him longer than he expected, but he successfully created a sturdy climbing harness that had the capacity to carry thrice his entire weight when suspended on the ceiling.
He equipped his harness and scrambled up to the ceiling. He had shaped four metal anchors to hold his weight. Satisfied with the performance of his harness, Smoke readied himself and pushed on into the tunnel.
The end of the tunnel proved to be another room with seven set of tunnels identical to where he had been on. He started to label each one including the tunnel where he came from.
The complexity of the labyrinth reminded Smoke of the time when he entered Caid's office, the only difference was that he had Gin, the bartender to guide him.
His plan was to move forward until he reached the end of the tunnel or he would reach the point where he started.
Whenever he enters a room with several tunnels to choose from, he would mark all of the tunnels and match that with his map, and then he he would choose the leftmost tunnel.
Two rooms had passed with five tunnels to choose from. The number of choices had been reduced by two, but the size of the room still remained the same. The DarkElf updated the map in his Beggar's tablet.
As he was labeling the tunnels, steel doors suddenly came up from below the ground. All of the entrances to the new tunnels were blocked.
There were no visible exits, except for the one where Smoke came from. Then, a plaque appeared on the wall, and it stated.
Solve the puzzle on the ground.
If you don't want to turn around.
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At the center of the room a rectangular shaped marble slab started to rise from below the floor. Smoke took a closer look at the risen object.
He saw a jigsaw puzzle of a Maneator. He found the puzzle to be simple enough. As he placed the last piece, loud sounds of gears were audible from beneath him.
The steel doors slowly retreated back to where they came from. After the quick puzzle, Smoke decided to push on with his leftward direction.
As he was about to enter the leftmost tunnel, it started to glow. With his Cunning of the Dire Fox, he felt that there were two fire salamanders inside the tunnel.
Smoke smiled. He had been looking for monsters and these two were perfect to test out his new equipment. He stood in front of the entrance of the tunnel.
He decided to stay in the room with the entrance to the five tunnels because this chamber was bigger than the tunnel. His strategy was to use his Agility of the Horned Rabbit to dodge the attacks of the fire salamander.
With his poison arrows, Smoke attacked one of the fire salamander. He fired as much as 16 poison arrows before the monsters reached the entrance.
Smoke's targeted fire salamander had (30,360/60,000 HP) left. The DarkElf switched weapons, and chose his electrically charged bull whip.
The moment the injured fire salamander came out of the tunnel, he attacked the fire salamander with the bullwhip and held the monster at the entrance. He stuck the bullwhip firmly on the ground to hold the captured fire salamander.
In view of the fact that his bull whip had been enchanted with the electro stone, the captured fire salamander received 150 damage points from jolt attacks at an interval of five seconds.
The bull whip's hold ability was enhanced by the white silk from the wolf spiders. The other fire salamander leapt over its companion and rushed after Smoke.
The DarkElf switched back to his powersaw bow, and ran in the opposite direction. Smoke was almost at the opposite wall, but he didn't reduce his speed. Instead he ran up the wall, and managed three steps on it before he leapt over the fire salamander.
He used his Wings of Cologus, his hooded cloak, to glide inside the huge chamber. He swiftly attacked the fire salamander with his poison arrows.
As Smoke's air time was coming to an end. He switched his weapon to his green dual knives. The fire salamander kept on following him from the ground.
He remembered the monster who gave him this hooded cloak, and decided to imitate the monster's attack.
Similar to how Cologus landed. Smoke used the back of the fire salamander as the designated area for his 'Stunning Landing' attack.
The power from Smoke's vertical attack, forced the fire salamander to be flattened on the ground. On top of the monster's back, He proceeded to sever the monster's neck with his knives.
Several attacks later, Smoke delivered the finishing blow and decapitated the monster. The fire salamander caught with the bullwhip still had (17,760/60,000 HP) left.
Smoke switched back to his powersaw bow, and leisurely killed the captured fire salamander. His improved bullwhip was a success. It managed to hold the fire salamander for seven minutes.
Posthaste, he gathered the loot from the two fire salamanders and proceeded to the tunnel where they came from. The end of this tunnel led him to a chamber that had three pathways.
As he decided earlier, he chose the leftmost pathway. It had already been twenty minutes, and he still didn't reach the end of the tunnel.
He thought to pick up his pace, and started to run. Igniz felt completely useless when Smoke fought against the fire salamanders.
Depressed, Igniz flew a few distance behind Smoke.
"Don't worry about. I don't think that all the monsters in the labyrinth are immune to fire."
Igniz nodded, but still felt down.
Another ten minutes into the tunnel, and Smoke finally saw the exit. The pathway opened to the biggest hallway that Smoke had seen.
However, before he had a chance to step into the great hallway, the exit of the tunnel was sealed, and so was the area behind Smoke.
He was enclosed in a semicircle tunnel which barely had an area of five square meters. A different plaque appeared on one of the walls.
Guess this new beast,
If you want to join the feast.
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In a similar manner as the room which had the puzzle of the Maneator, a new marble slab rose from below the floor.
However, this time Smoke did not recognize the monster in the jigsaw puzzle. It had two long goatlike horns, cloven hooves, had fur with black and brown colors, and had a long pointed tongue that lolled out.
Smoke tried his best to follow which puzzle piece belonged to where. This jigsaw took longer than the previous one.
Fifteen minutes passed, and Smoke finished the puzzle. The monster was clearly a large bodied creature. With dark colored fur, long goat-like horns, and a chain that was held on monster's arm.
With the jigsaw puzzle completed, the doors went down and opened Smoke's path to the great hall.
There were two rows of Corinthian pillars at the center of the great hall. The pillars extended upto the 40 meter ceiling. Each pillar had a distance of 20 meters from the next.
However, the scene that impressed Smoke the most was the multitude of monsters that were at the center of the great hall.
There were 400 wolf spiders at the outer layer in the gathering of monsters. 200 fire salamanders were grouped on one corner, and 230 crested newts were on another corner.
The crested newts had the same size as the fire salamanders with a body length of 6 feet. These monsters had black tough skin and white-tipped warts. The crested newts had slimy hides which protected them from the fire salamanders' flame attacks.
Due to the fight between the fire salamanders and the crested newts, these new monsters, unknown to Smoke, had their names and lifebars displayed.
Smoke discreetly ascended the great hall, and attached his harness onto the ceiling. From up high, Smoke had a great view of the battle between the fire salamanders and the crested newts.
Five minutes passed, and the two sides remained in place. All the monsters were doing were hissing and taunting at the other side.
The DarkElf grew impatient, and decided to start the ball rolling.
"Igniz, can you hide behind one of those pillars near the crested newts and make as many firewalls as you can?"
The dark ember sprite smiled, for at last he had monsters to torture. At full tilt, Igniz flew down from the ceiling and hid behind the Corinthian pillars.
Igniz released five firewalls on the swarm of crested newts. The monsters immediately got riled up and charged at the fire salamanders.
The fire salamanders and crested newts used their claws and their teeth to gnaw and slash against the other species.
Smoke enjoyed the view of seeing the two packs clash. Then he noticed the wolf spiders started to move around. The opportunistic beasts waited for the monsters to be gravely injured.
