The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 1248: Unacceptable Reduction

The first boss was being rapidly disassembled by the combined efforts of the group, while Rae and Cara raged in the corner about the lack of damage that they could do to it.

Ten Percent damage taken was completely unacceptable.

They were only a little bit from the bottleneck. But the dungeon wouldn’t let them go forward until the boss fight was over.

If it did, they would have just taken some of the Golems and cleared the trash during the boss fight, and then the Karl and his friends could just do the second boss after the first.

Worse, the Ape healed even though it was bleeding heavily, and that was making it take even longer.

Dana had to fight not to laugh as the annoyance of the two bored beasts flooded her mind, followed by the amusement of Remi and Hawk, who were competing to see who could better predict where the boss would be pulled next.

It wasn’t pulled into their vortexes, and setting them right on its head was too easy.

Plus, the Totem Ranked Vortex didn’t actually do much, and space was limited.

The moment that the boss gasped its last, and collapsed to the ground, Karl turned to see what happened with the other boss.

No change. So, it wasn’t a split timer.

But did that mean it was still going to hit Immortal halfway through the failure timer?

Or would it stop just short?

Terry checked his watch. ”We’re fifteen minutes in. Plenty of time for this group, but the amount of damage you need to do to that boss is insane. If we’re going to do this with a normal group, we will need better gear.”

Karl transformed back and nodded. ”I’m more concerned about how fast that enrage timer is advancing. We already know that level six will cap out at Immortal. But I don’t know what will happen on level three.”

The Blood Knight shrugged. ”As long as it gives good loot, I’m putting my faith in you this time. That dragon form is by far the best tank I’ve ever fought beside.”

The beasts were already off and running, clearing the Totem Ranked Apes.

”They sure are energetic. We should get going. But does the Naga have a skill book for those flaming totems? They’re adorable.” Mars asked.

Remi had patterned her [Burning Poison] Totems after herself, and they were designed to look like three entwined Naga Princesses that spit poisonous fireballs at every enemy in range when they were active.

”I will get you a copy later if you want one. It’s a fairly standard Shaman spell, she just modified the appearance.” Karl agreed, as Remi couldn’t hear them.

That was good enough for Mars, and he led the charge toward the next group of Mythic apes, eager to get to the end of the dungeon and see what sort of loot they would get.

They were really getting into a rhythm now, efficiently working together to kill the monsters, but the monsters were getting stronger by the second, and the enrage timer appeared to be stacking, increasing the speed that their buffs were improved.

They had also learned that it was not a great idea to try to dispel the Mythic Apes, as it increased the enrage buff when it returned.

”Maybe we’re supposed to bring a berserker, something that enrages to offset the dungeon? If a berserker tank got enrage buffs every few seconds, they would be monsters in here.” James suggested as he fired off another volley of arrows.

Karl shook his head. ”No, we have an enrage effect as well. It’s active on Cara, but she’s not improving, she’s just extra badger today.”

The Ranger sighed. ”Improved difficulty is no joke. Good thing we didn’t pick the maximum level.”

Pushing through the packs in between bosses as fast as they could, they arrived at the final boss just before the enrage effect peaked.

Dana snapped her fingers and pointed at the boss. ”I get it now. It’s not on a timer! The enrage effect increases as you complete the dungeon, so it’s always at the maximum when you fight the final boss.”

Karl finally understood how the System had set things up, and smirked in satisfaction when he realized that the final boss would not reach the Immortal Rank this time.

It was very close, and the boss was definitely near the peak of what could be believably called Mythic. But it did not have the extra damage reduction effect unique to Immortals.

That gave them a simple solution to killing the final boss. All Karl had to do was use the Amulet to improve the [Undead Army] skill to Immortal Rank, and it would be all over.

Not much was going to defeat a dozen Immortal Spectral Knights.

However, he held off on that this time, as they had more than enough time to finish the fight, and he didn’t need to reveal that bit of treasure to these outsiders. They could keep that an Alliance secret for later.

”Well, it’s not an Immortal. You know what to do, gentlemen.” Terry joked as he moved into position to take up his role as the main tank.

The Dark Elven Kings thought that it was adorable that the Vampire thought that he could be the main tank when there were Epic Golems present, but they didn’t stop him from trying.

Terry opened with [Sunder], hitting the Demonic Ape in the chest and making it stumble back a step. Then, before he could follow up, it was on him.

But the Earth Elemental Lords that Dana used as Epic Golems were beside him, and [Auto Parry] kept the flurry of blows from landing. It was a marvellous tactic, as the Ape tried to get past the Golems, which blocked all its attacks.

That left the back open for the rest of the combatants, who immediately tore into it.

Karl knew from experience that this last boss took as long as the rest of the dungeon, thanks to the increased enrage.

Or, it did last time.