Val’s enhanced agility allowed him to nimbly avoid paths strewn with hallucination-causing mushrooms, weaving skillfully among the densely-packed trees.
Predictably, the Queen Bee gave chase, firing her laser beams relentlessly.
However, the dense foliage provided an unexpected shield.
Many of the laser beams were intercepted by the sturdy trees, their trunks taking the hit intended for Val and exploding into smithereens.
As for the rest, he had to deal with them himself.
Thankfully, Val’s Detect trait served him well, granting him an uncanny sixth sense for danger. He was able to predict where the lasers were going to strike before the Queen Bee even released them, enabling him to dodge them with ease.
Coupled with his enhanced speed, he was able to create a significant distance between himself and the Queen Bee while dodging her lethal attacks. 𝚘𝓋𝔩xt.𝑐𝒐𝚖
His eyes gleamed with cunning as he caught sight of a towering tree ahead. It was thick enough to hide his form from the enemy chasing him if he get behind it.
“I need to make it happen. Once I do, I will gain the opportunity to put my plan into motion,” he murmured to himself, an air of determination enveloping him.
Approaching the airborne Queen openly was an open invitation to her deadly laser attacks. Thus, he chose to take a more covert approach using the Other Side. Through it, he could monitor the Queen’s position using his enhanced Heavenly Eye and re-emerge at an advantageous location to strike her down.
Upon reaching behind the tall tree, he halted abruptly, pulling out the Mystical Shovel from his subspace. With its help, he opened the door to the Other Side. He immediately stepped into it, and the door vanished from sight.
Whoosh!
The Queen Bee, seeing him disappear behind the tree, unleashed another laser attack on the obstruction.
Bam!
Struck by the beams, The tree erupted in an explosion, scattering wooden shrapnel in all directions.
However, there was nothing behind it – Val had seemingly vanished into thin air, leaving the Queen Bee baffled.
Meanwhile, Val had safely made his transition to the Other Side. This side of the dungeon was eerily similar to the real world, with the glaring exception of it being devoid of any life. As he observed his surroundings, his eyebrow raised in surprise and his sixth sense tingled when he noticed the tree behind him exploding into countless splinters, threatening to pierce him.
Reacting swiftly, Val activated his blood manipulation skill. Waves of blood surged from his body, swirling protectively around him. Like a wall of crimson, the blood deflected all incoming wooden shards, safeguarding Val from any potential harm.
In that moment, a realization dawned upon Val: changes that happened in the real world had an immediate effect on the Other Side. This revelation gave him a deeper understanding of the connection between the two dimensions, and a broader perspective on how to leverage it in his favor.
‘For now, let’s deal with the enraged Karen,’ Val thought as he pumped dozens of units of soul power into his eyes from his arcane heart to activate the strengthened version of Heavenly Eye.
Immediately, he could see reality from the Other Side. It was so much better compared to the semi-transparent view of only his surrounding he got when using the weakest version of Heavenly Eye which require less soul power.
His gaze located the Queen Bee, who was still lingering near the remnants of the exploded tree, seemingly puzzled by his disappearance.
‘You’ll remain bewildered as you die. I’ll make sure of that,” Val vowed.
Val gripped the shovel in one hand and his cursed sword in the other. To free one of his hands – crucial for maintaining balance while riding his flying broom – he secured the sword in his mouth. He then procured the flying broom from the pocket dimension of his Void Orb and soared towards the unsuspecting Queen Bee.
Upon positioning himself in her blind spot, Val wielded the power of his Mystical Shovel to create an exit from the Other Side. As he exited this portal, he found himself materializing behind the Queen in the real world.
Quickly, Val switched the shovel for his sword and swung it towards the Queen, who was still scrutinizing the forest to locate, oblivious to the fact he was just behind her.
Val’s sword moved seamlessly through the Queen Bee, tracing a distinct red line across her body. This line served as the blueprint of his assault, charting the deadly path his blade was taking.
Moments after the line appeared, a gruesome spectacle unfolded as the Queen Bee’s body split along this trajectory. The dissection was clean and precise, causing her body to detach at the demarcated line as blood spurted out from the severed sections like a fountain. The two parts of her body crashed to the ground.
A system notification chimed in.
[Ding! Congratulations, host! You have killed the Level 38 Queen Bee. You have gained several hundred EXP.]
Val wiped the sweat off his face. This was one of the hardest supernatural battles he had fought. Then he maneuvered the flying broom like a witcher, landing next to its body parts.
“Time to collect the spoils of war.”
Using the weakest form of his Heavenly Eye, he peered into the carcass of the Queen Bee. Within her remains, he spotted several glowing cores and an Evolution Material – a pleasantly surprising find. Swiftly, he enveloped his hand in soul power, creating a protective barrier to guard against the paralyzing properties of the Queen’s blood. He plunged this shielded hand into the Queen’s corpse, extracting his well-deserved rewards, one by one.
Soon enough, three level 3 cores and an Evolution Material were secured in his grasp.
Among the cores, one was a Wisdom Core, leading him to revise his earlier assumption.
A dungeon monster didn’t need to possess the ability to speak to yield a Wisdom Core – it merely needed to be intelligent enough to be a significant pain in the ass.