Transmigrated as a Ghost

Chapter 230 - 229 Boss Fight Begins

After giving himself around twenty minutes to recover, Marcus was feeling much better, and his soul regeneration skill had nearly finished recovering his tattered soul.

'I need to be more careful with my soul devour unique skill.'

Having just used what were certainly his strongest two abilities together, Marcus now realized just how dangerous they were.

Individually either one put immense pressure on Marcus but used at the same time, while the power was explosive so was the recoil.

If he was not careful, he was liable to destroy himself with his own power as he had come close to multiple times in the past.

Once Marcus had gotten back into working condition, he began approaching the corpse of Drazen planning to take his stuff, but Jarek came up and stopped him.

"Irene, I recommend you not take anything off of him. Certainly, he was a scumbag, but he is the son of a powerful viscount that is a prominent retainer of one of the kingdom's four dukes. In fact, their whole group was made up with talented nobles, albeit all of them having difficult personalities which is why they ended up adventures instead of elite warriors of the kingdom. There is likely to be an investigation into their deaths and there are certain magics and skills that can locate items that belonged to a person."

Nodding his head Marcus understood, certainly these guys had attacked them first but if they brought it up it would just be their word for the events that had happened.

And the gains that would be obtained from taking their items would not be worth the chance of having a bunch of powerful nobles gunning for him.

Even a declining noble like Viscount Poulsen had tracked him down to kill him, so if a whole group of powerful nobles came after him, Marcus shuddered to think about the aftermath.

"Okay so what should we do with the remaining bodies and their gear."

However, as Jarek was about to tell Marcus what they should do, Treasa came in an addressed the elephant in the room.

"Irene, before we do anything else, what was that. Power of that kind is not something a level forty should be able to wield. Even a unique skill should not have been able to make you strong enough to kill six people all around level fifty. So, what is it exactly you did?"

Seeing the stern face on Treasa' face Marcus began thinking about how much to tell them.

He certainly did not want to divulge the details of his soul devour skill, and to this point he had not even heard of anyone having a supreme skill other than him and Roxene.

'I suppose a bit of truth while hiding the rest is best, I can do.'

With a firm expression Marcus after taking just a couple seconds to mull over what to say, said, "That certainly was not just one unique skill, but actually three. I have three unique skills that can all boost my stats by a good amount, and I used all of them at the same time. Of course, using all of those unique skills at once puts a great strain on me so I normally only use one at a time, but I wanted to test how strong they would all be together."

Marcus then gave a little apologetic bow before examining both Jarek and Treasa's expressions.

Luckily it seemed that Jarek fully believed him although he also seemed to be stunned to hear that Marcus had three unique skills.

Yet Treasa seemed to still be harboring some level of inquisitiveness towards Marcus' abilities but was satisfied for now understanding that everyone had their secrets to keep.

"So, Irene could you use that level of power again during the boss fight?" Treasa asked wanting to know how much they could rely on Marcus' huge bursts in power.

However, Marcus just shook his head. He had no intention of using that kind of power again any time soon since he could tell that it would be too straining.

"Sorry I can probably only use one of my unique skills for a couple of minutes after doing what I just did. Those eleven seconds took a lot out of me, and I really do not want to do that again unless I have to."

"Okay then I guess let us take the remaining bodies and throw them along with their gear into the lake. Even if an investigation into their deaths reaches this far it will just seem that they died in a dangerous part of the dungeon." 

The three of them then gathered up all of the evidence of their battle and went around a mile away to throw the remains into the lake, letting them sink deep into the watery abyss.

After that they head back to the cave where the boss room was located and decided to spend the night there to recover before heading to face the boss.

'From now on I need to avoid using the second ability of soul devour unless my life is on the line. It effects are just too dangerous to be used like any of my other skills.'

Having decided to keep his soul devour's power enhancing ability under lock and key except for them most dire circumstances, Marcus finally allowed himself to fall into unconsciousness making sure he was at his best for tomorrow's boss fight.

Waking up the next morning Marcus did his routine maintenance on his gear while they discussed their final strategies.

"Okay remember the most important part will be for all of us to stay flexible. Once we identify what type of boss we are facing, we can use the different strategies we have developed." Treasa said, taking the lead since she had the highest level and most experience.

With every preparation they could make done, Marcus, Jarek and Treasa began the decent into the boss room, walking through the large doors and going down a spiral staircase that led into a massive room where the trial of fighting the boss would happened.

When they arrived, they could see the entire room that was easily the size of a football stadium.

The room itself had a soft glow from multiple small protrusions in the ground that had magma flowing out of them.

This also created a number of pools of magma throughout the room that would make moving around much harder.

However, the small pools of magma dotted through the room were nothing compared to the large sixteen foot tall being in the middle of the room that seemed to be composed entirely of molten rock and was exuding a powerful aura.

This being soon noticed Marcus and his group's arrival and turned towards them before its head split in half revealing its large mouth that was full of incredibly bright magma.

The being that was obviously the boss monster then let out some type of roar that sounded like grating rocks and boiling water and shook the room.

The small pools of magma started to bubble and burst as the room that seemed to be dormant before began to heat up to dangerous levels.

"Fuck it had to be the elder magma elemental. That is undoubtedly the most annoying enemy that we could have run into. Jarek please tell me its level is low." Treasa said with a grave look on her face turning towards Jarek who had the creature appraisal skill and hoping for good news.

Unfortunately, Jarek just shook his head and said, "It is level fifty-two, as high as you would expect from the guardians we fought."

Groaning Treasa looked out towards the magma elemental before saying, "We are unlikely to win against that thing. It has high resistance to physical attacks, and magic other than ice and water. Plus, with its body being that hot even getting close to attack it will cause us damage, I am afraid that retreat is our best option."

After analyzing the enemy in front of them it seemed that it was truly the worst matchup against a monster that was incredibly resilient and difficult to deal with.

Yet as the boss monster was approaching them and Treasa and Jarek were preparing to leave, Marcus stopped them and said, "We can still win. I did not mention it before because it did not seem applicable, but I do have a fire resistance spell, and my boots have the ability to generate a tidal wave. We should at least give our best shot before giving up."

Treasa and Jarek seeing the resolute expression on Marcus' face turned around and looked at the elder magma elemental that was approaching leisurely, almost as if it barely acknowledged their presence.

Of course, both of them wanted to fight against a boss monster, test their metal, and receive the tremendous rewards, but survival was also the most important aspect of being an adventurer.

They could always come back later with another person who had ice magic and would be more suited for this boss. Or they could even just sell the coordinates for this boss room and make some money that way.

But could they turn tail and run when someone more than ten levels lower than the two of them was ready to stand and fight.

"Very well Irene we will rely on you, but if I call for a retreat we will be leaving and there will not be any dissention." Treasa said with a smile on her face from the anticipation of the coming battle.

Nodding his head Jarek said, "We already came this far, and going back empty handed would leave a bitter taste in my mouth. This may be our only chance to fight a boss so let us give it our all."

With everyone finding their fighting spirit, Marcus, Jarek, and Treasa looked at their foe, and got ready to engage in the epic battle that was to come.