The Earth After Rebirth

Chapter 16: Basilisk

They had no idea, but they had just entered the mouth of a gigantic snake. It liked sitting there with its mouth wide open, while it's dark nobody would notice a thing. Rats and everything else found themselves stomach acid in a matter of minutes. This is the way in which it finds food, it baits the unsuspecting.

"It's a mouth! Fall back!" Kiro shouted rembering something.

They ran as fast as they could to the edge of the mouth. It was closing, they had to make it. Kiro hit the walls of the mouth with his staff and activated vibrations. The snake took the full blast and was stunned, it was losing HP rapidly. They finally made it out of its mouth, without wasting any time, Hiro used his shield to sever the snake's head while it was still stunned.

This was the tunnel to the 40th floor, the boss room, the basilisk. The two boys sat there in disbelief, they had almost died. They actually took damage while inside the snake they drank some low level potions to recover. And just sat there disbelieving. They had been too lax and careless!

They both regained their composure and started walking towards the boss room. Only this time they would occasionally hit the ground to ensure they weren't entering another mouth. Hiro couldn't use his fire manipulation, he would use it when they were battling the boss.

"Try not to look it in the eye." Kiro said coolly.

"What do you—"

Hiro hadn't finished his question and it appeared. 'Why would that thing be here!' He felt cold, his stomach dropped. His back was attacked by buckets of sweat. He gulped.

"Hey Kiro, we entered the D ranked Labyrinth right?"

"It's C. Didn't I mention that? This one has better rewards with 50 floors."

Basilisk

Level 17

HP: 1000

"You conveniently left that part out." Hiro muttered nervously.

"Hey, at least it's not true to the legends. It's stare doesn't kill you, it just stuns you for 2 seconds. As long as one of us stays unstunned while the other is. I believe we can beat him!

"I also have a stunning skill. Mine is a lot stronger than his."

"I'm just a craftsman!" Hiro bellowed.

"You look sturdy enough to be a tank, you also have a fire thing going on. Quit whining, let's kill this bastard."

Hiro wanted to retorted that the 'fire thing' was for crafting but Kiro didn't give him a chance to talk back.

He didn't waste any time and activated vibrations. To stun it for 10 seconds, it'd consume 50 MPs. But he didn't mind. The skill was acquired to be used. Upon stunning it, it began to lose HP too. 5 per second. It wasn't much, but it was something.

They also didn't just stand idly, they attacked it like their lives depended on it. Which, if we're honest, did depend on it.

-30

-60

-70

-120

-200

After 10 seconds, it had lost over 20% of its HP. Without a warning that vibrations was no longer in effect, Kiro was stunned by the basilisk. As quickly as it stunned him, it swarted him like a fly with it's tail, right in the chest. He flew 10 meters up, and slammed on the floor hard. Losing 50 of his HP. The basilisk pounced to finish off its prey.

Hiro of course saw this, but since he neglected his dexterity, he couldn't get there in time to save his best friend. Luckily, he got there for the second attack, which would've been poison. This guys poison was still too much for this apprentice alchemist. He blocked its head with his shield.

He was grateful he had focused more on strength now, because the basilisk couldn't even move him. Tried as it did. It banged countless times on the shield, In turn it just received a lot of damage. It was down to 60% HP now.

Kiro got up, and got ready to activate vibrations once again. He was careful this time not to even look at it.

'Not taking my own advice of not looking at it, may be the most embarrassing thing that's ever occurred in my life.' Kiro thought to himself.

The two boys used the same strategy to chip away at the Basilisk's HP. The overgrown snake knew it was outmatched, so it tried to escape. This was absolutely unheard of! A boss monster trying to run away.

This was a cunning ploy for them to give chase, so it could turn right around and spit poison. But alas to the basilisk, with his future knowledge, Kiro knew exactly what it was trying to do.

He knew that its defenses were especially low now that it was concentrating all its might to spring poison on its enemies. Kiro activated Blink, he appeared, right in front of the basilisk.

The monster was visibly shocked by this sudden turn of events. It froze for a second. But that was enough, without wasting any time, with all his might, Kiro hit it right where its neck should be. Though it was a staff, it completely severed the head from the body.

The loot was abundant. The skill books they've gathered in this set of floors alone were around 5, unfortunately none of them could be used by them. They were both visibly frustrated, as they wanted a new skill as soon as possible. Nobody would say no to a skill book. Instead it dropped weapons they couldn't equip, swords, bows, spears. At least this time, the boss dropped a rare ranked shield.

Which Hiro equipped immediately. It was inferior to his master's shield but it was still superior to the shield he crafted. There was also rare steel armour and rare cloth armour. Both of which they were grateful for. Both armours had 100 defense.

This boss didn't even drop a single mana potion. It seemed like the devs were stingy. They got up and went to the next set of floors, which was the last.

The monsters there were a mix of Orcs and High Orcs. High Orcs were an evolved version of Orcs.

Orcs

Level 15

HP: 700

High Orcs

Level 16

HP: 1000

Since they levelled up twice in the last floors. They were now level 13. Kiro didn't waste any time, he attributed the 6 APs to dexterity.

Name: Kiro

Level 13

Race: Dreki

Class: Sagehood

Subclass: -

HP: 500/500

MP: 350/350

Attack: 100(+20)

PDEF: 100(+100)

Strength: 21

Vitality: 15 (+5)

Dexterity: 21(+2)

Stamina: 21

Intelligence: 21

Equipment: rare cloth armour, boots and uncommon staff.

Skills

Staff Wielder (Rank A, can't evolve) 20% damage

Vibrations (AOE Rank S, can't evolve)

Consumes 5MP per second, no cooldown.

Blink Step (Rank S, can evolve)

Hurricane Punch (Rank B, can evolve)

Consumes 10MP per second.

Martial Arts (Ranked S, can't evolve)

Chi (Ranked A, can't evolve)

0 AP

9 SP

Kiro felt a ping in his chest. It really hurt that they went through all this and he couldn't get a single skill he could use. Not even a decent weapon.

They fought Orcs. Orcs were a bit smarter than the previous monsters. They had strategies. They had archers, tanks and damage dealers. Hiro found himself thanking the developers for not giving them healers too. That was just too much!

Their best bet was to keep stunning, and beating them into a pulp. They dropped a lot of decent things, which both boys agreed to put up for selling. They already had rare armour they didn't need more.

Orcs were also dropping a lot of intermediate mana potions, which were gratefully received. Kiro's weapon was starting to wear. It was just an uncommon weapon after all, a weapon he crafted off random tree bark! And he dared to challenge a C ranked Labyrinth with it!

After killing a wave of Orcs and high Orcs alike. They took a break, and Hiro started to hammer on Kiro's weapon and since it was a wooden weapon, he used a wooden hammer.

No matter how many times he had seen it, Kiro was always mesmerised seeing someone control flames like this. He just conjured them out of nowhere. It seemed that they were fuelled by his hard work. Kiro started calling them hell flames.

Even though it was a wooden staff, they didn't burn it into ash. Which was an amazing feat.

When he was done with it, the staff looked like the first time he equipped it.

"Ahh, Hiro, my best friend! You're pretty great."

"Thank me when I can create a mythic weapon. Repairing is just childish stuff. You made this staff? Not bad."

They opened the door to the final boss's room. It was quite majestic. There was even a throne. Both of them half expected for the Orc King to say something, anything. But a monster was a monster in the end.

Orc King

Level 20

HP: 3000

Both boys didn't bother with courtesies, they full on rampaged from the very first step. The Orc king was visibly livid. As if to say, 'You dare enter my castle, kill my foot soldiers and now you're disrespecting my own private quarters.' It brandished an axe.

The orc king basically flew to them enraged. He lunged and aimed at them with his big axe, swinging mercilessly.

CLANK!

Hiro stood his ground, he didn't move an inch. His shield met with the axe once more. Still, the dwarf was rooted in place. Kiro was not standing idly either. He jumped up high and hit the king with his staff right in the head.

-200

As if to swat a fly, the king waved his hand which hit Kiro in the face. That was clearly careless, Kiro didn't seem to care. He had HP potions after all.

-50

Orcs were huge and clumsy. Kiro had put those points on dexterity for this reason. If he was faster it was better. He knew that stuns wouldn't work on him, he had a resistance. That's why he hadn't bothered to use vibrations.

Instead he used his dexterity and spammed blink to land in clean hits. Hiro wasn't lazy either. He used his shield to smash onto the king, which caused a lot of damage.

90%

60%

30%

3%

1%

They had suffered more than they liked to admit. But they conquered their goliath.

Ding!

[Congratulations for beating the final boss and clearing a C ranked Labyrinth. You've been rewarded 500k EXP]

[For being the first to clear the Labyrinth you've received 2 million gold coins]

[World Announcement: Congratulations to players Hiro and Kiro, for being the first players to clear a C ranked Labyrinth]

[You've gained the king's axe and 3 skill books.]

Hiro took the axe, which was a unique weapon. Of the 3 skill books 2 were usable for Kiro.

Palm Crashing: [Ranked A, can evolve] Some people need weapons to crash their enemies but you only need your palms!

Bending Kick: [Ranked B, can evolve] The skill is powerful, once it reaches its peak, its a kick that can bend space itself.

The world announcement would've caused an uproar if, and only if the game was popular. But this was only day 1 of its release, it would blow up in a few days!

Kiro and Hiro levelled up to 17. They weren't done with this Labyrinth yet. They had to accumulate all they needed to because the double booster would last for 5 days, which was only 5 hours in real life.

So they went for another run, and another run, and another run. It was getting extremely difficult to level up at this point. By the time they were done. They had been level 19.

Kiro had 27 SP, 18 AP. He poured 20 SP on the two skills he had just received. Bending Kick went from rank B to rank A!