Chapter 17: Explosion!

'Ant my ass! It's a god damn giant millipede!!!' Shiro thought cursing at the misleading name of the monster.

'No wonder the ants weren't as common closer to the obelisk. There's another species guarding it that's why!'

Millipedes were different to centipedes. While some may get the two mixed up, there are a few distinct differences.

First off, the Millipede have very short antennae compared to the Centipede. The physiology of a centipede is flatter compared to a Millipede which supported a more rounded chitin armour.

The centipede's legs are positioned outwards like a razor blade while the millipede's legs are tucked under its body.

In addition to this, the centipede was limited to a single pair of legs per segment of its body.

This is where this huge Millipede earned the name Hundred Blades. Unlike a centipede, the millipede has two pairs of legs per segment. Not only this, each segment is relatively smaller than the centipede's segments.

With each of the legs being composed of a razor sharp blade, Shiro shivered slightly just thinking about getting caught in those legs. Even with her MP and attack, the millipede would just wear her down in a battle of attrition.

'Millipede millipede… They are scavengers that are classed as herbivores. Yet obviously, this one wants to chew on meat.' Shiro thought seeing the 'Ant' move around.

'Since I can't base it on the normal standards, I'll learn as I fight.' She concluded.

Preparing herself so that her concentration was at its best. Shiro created two daggers for now.

When testing the capabilities of an enemy, one must be between the fine line of the danger zone and the safety zone.

Too far into the danger zone without sufficient understanding can be highly fatal. Yet, staying in the safety zone will restrain the knowledge you receive. Therefore, one must dance around these two zones carefully to get the maximum benefit.

'First, concussive shock. Test the reaction when robbed of its sensory.' Shiro thought as she dashed towards the millipede.

Twirling the blade by the handle, she threw it towards the short antennas. The speed was decreased dramatically as most of the force was focused on making it spin through the air.

The millipede raised its head as the daggers bounced on both antennas.

*CRR!

Freezing the antennas, Shiro jumped backwards immediately seeing the desired effect.

Without hesitation, the millipede rolled into a ball.

'Is that all?' Shiro thought with a frown.

*KISHIN!

The millipede's blade-like legs protruded from the side of its body while the shell spiked up abnormally like a porcupine's quills.

She wasn't sure how the millipede was generating the forces for it to spin on the spot, but she knew it was preparing to go on a rampage.

Pushing her palms outwards, a ramp was created with scaffolds to support the structure.

*KRKRKRKRKRKR

The sound of blades cutting through rock could be heard as she knew it was rolling around to try hit everything due to a loss of its sensory.

'Robbing the millipede of the senses will increase fight difficulty. Patterns become random as it would try to attack anything and everything.' She thought, dismissing the daggers freezing the antennas.

The millipede continued to roll, causing Shiro to frown.

Making a spear of ice, she threw it towards the millipede hoping for it to cause some damage.

Unfortunately, the spear was smacked downwards due to the millipede's roll and crushed under its armour.

'Armour is absurdly powerful. Fighting head on is not advised.'

Remaining calm, Shiro retracted all of the Ice as she waited for the millipede to unfurl itself.

It was only after 10 minutes of rampaging did it unroll itself.

Her eyes narrowed as she peered past the tens of blade legs it had under its body.

'With the blades being mostly concentrated on its underbelly, it may be a natural defence due to its weakness.'

Raising up her arms, Shiro gritted her teeth slightly as ice started to form under the millipede.

*CCRRRR!!!

The ice raised the millipede into air little by little as it tried to claw away at the ice.

Flexing her fingers, Shiro froze the bladed legs in their place

Making a sharp ice spear, she took aim and threw the spear.

*TSSSSS!!!!

Chemicals sprayed out from under the millipede as Shiro watched all the ice melt visibly.

'It has ridiculous armour, bladed feet and chemicals…unless you try to overpower it, you won't kill it in anytime soon. And if I try to fight it in a battle of attrition, it's not worth the effort.'

"However… I want to see just how I will pry your shell open." Shiro grinned.

Electricity sparked in her hand as she started to use her new skill. Sword Creation.

Running towards the millipede before the swords even finish being crafted, Shiro stepped down hard as a pillar of ice extended out and pierced towards its legs.

Four of the millipede's legs reacted as it cut the pillar into small sections that did it no harm.

"Surprise~" Shiro appeared near the legs as they couldn't retract in time.

The sword formed fully in her hands as she twisted her body and cut the legs.

*KREEEE!!!

The millipede screamed feeling 6 of its legs cut off in one go.

"Aiya~ Just as sharp as I remembered." Shiro grinned.

The sword was a metallic black in colour, mechanical details could be seen around the guard and the hilt. It was a simple looking sword but its sharpness was something to be feared.

[Nano Craft Sword LVL 24 (Blue)]

+30 Sharpness

+25 Bleed

+10 Critical Rate

+5 Critical Damage

+30 Severing

Skill: Razor Edge

Use 400MP to gain +20% cutting strength for the next attack.

MP – 3600/4000

Quickly kicking her legs so that she flipped backwards, Shiro avoided the chemicals the millipede spat at her.

Mid flip, she sliced towards the chitin and left a slight groove.

'Hmm, seems like the best way is for me to attack the bottom.' Shiro thought, preparing herself.

Landing softly, she slammed her hands down and created a wall of ice just under the millipede raising it up into the air.

Once again, the millipede tried to use its chemicals but Shiro was way ahead of it.

Clutching her fist, the ice pillars lifting the millipede up exploded into a myriad of spikes penetrating its weak lower body.

Chemicals went everywhere as Shiro had to shift her location several times to avoid getting dowsed in corrosive liquid.

Dragging the sword on the ground, Shiro dashed towards the underbelly.

*KRRRRR!!!

The sword ripped through the soft armour with barely any resistance.

Using Faded Snow Movement, Shiro quickly avoided some of the bladed feet trying to kill her.

Twisting her body, she escaped from under the millipede.

[HP: 43,000/80,000]

Her attacks proved to be extremely effective as the health was dropping rapidly.

Sensing its doom, the millipede wanted to take her down with it.

Curling into a ball, the millipede's chitin spiked up as Shiro narrowed her eyes.

"Oh you M*******!!!" She cursed seeing the abnormal mana density.

Running would prove foolish as her defences are too weak to survive the self-destruction of a level 25 boss.

Shiro quickly dissembled her sword to regain her mana and used [Harden].

[Harden]

Harden's your skin for increased defence.

+35 DEF and -20% damage taken -20% AGI

Duration: 30 seconds.

Cooldown: 2 minutes.

A silver metallic sheen seems to cover her body as she placed her palm on the ground and used the remainder of her MP to create a giant wall of ice.

*BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!!

Layers upon layers of Ice walls shot up in front of Shiro as she quickly braced for impact.

*BOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It felt like the entire Dungeon shook as Shiro was blasted backwards from the explosion. Even when her ice walls absorbed most of the impact, the force hitting her body still launched her backwards.

Rolling on the ground a few times, she made sure to use her arms to protect her head.

When she finally stopped rolling, Shiro quickly put her guard up in case any blade ants wanted to ambush her.

"Fuuu….." She sighed out seeing that there was no danger and checked her HP and MP.

[HP: 950/7300]

[MP: 80/11,300]

This was the first time her HP and MP have dropped so low in terms of the overall percentage.

Stumbling on her feet, Shiro limped towards the obelisk.

What used to be the space for a boss fight was now covered in corrosive chemicals, flesh, blades and armour.

Looking around, Shiro was sure the walls per pushed back by quite a remarkable amount as the explosion must have taken some of the cave walls with it.

It was a known fact that Dungeon walls are one of and if not THE strongest material known ever. The material scaled up in level as the higher level the Dungeon, the sturdier walls.

For the boss to be able to shave off quite a few layers of the wall, shows just how absurd that explosion was.

"[Collect]" She collected her look straight away as she knew there won't be a mana stone.

When the monster self-destructs, the mana stone was used as the source and gathering point.

Therefore, there won't even be a shard of the mana stone left.

The loot she got wasn't too bad but she had no use for any of them.

Recycling everything, Shiro sat down by a rock that wasn't coated in corrosive liquid.

Whilst waiting for her HP and MP to regen, she decided to have a look at her current food stock.

[E Rank Mana Stone x84]

[D Rank Mana Sone x40]

"40 D rank mana stones should last me a while." Shiro muttered as she laid on her back and threw an E rank mana stone for her mouth to eat.

It took her quite a while to regenerate everything as she wondered if she should stock up on some health and mana potions.

'It would probably for the best if I stocked up. At least then I can regenerate my health and mana quickly.' Shiro thought.

However, as handy as health and mana potions can get, they also have their own backlashes. Mainly due to the skill of the creator who made the potion.

Examples being low tier health and mana potions having adverse effects later along in the line.

These effects can be a decrease of total HP, slow MP recovery and so on. Only the higher quality health and mana potions provided barely any adverse effects.

'I think I'll stick to my Passive Regeneration for now.' Shiro concluded. There was another skill she would like to get, it was the top tier regeneration skill of monsters called [Cell Rebirth].

It was a skill that is both passive and active as the monster can use its own MP and exchange it for health. The known limits of this skill were the power to regrow anything that doesn't destroy over 80 to 90% of your body.

Just remembering the sight of a level 100+ monster regenerating all of its lost HP made Shiro curse at the perverted skill.

With that being said, she wanted the skill as well since it would increase her survivability by a large amount. Not only that, she was currently a monster so there may be a chance for that in the future.

Giving her body a stretch, she opened the obelisk and tapped the final floor. The boss floor.

The room was oddly shaped as it had an open sky that was sprinkled with stars. The surroundings seemed to be the ruins of an open Colosseum as Shiro spotted the boss.

The boss had an armoured body like the rest of the ants but there was one HUGE difference.

[Flying Frag Ant Queen LVL 25 – Boss]

HP: 150,000/150,000

MP: 200,000/200,000

The boss hovered in the air was the transparent wings flapped at incredible speeds.

"…" Shiro stared at the boss with a bland expression.

Flicking her finger, a huge ice spike shot up as the queen wanted to evade.

Suddenly, the tip of the spike opened up like a flower as the smaller spikes pierced the wings, suspending the queen in mid-air.

"When you expose such weak wings and stay in the same spot, you're asking to be killed." Shiro said without a smile. Her azure eyes bore into the queen's eyes as Shiro created two daggers whilst the queen seemed to be shocked.

*KSH KSH!

Slicing the wings off in a few simple movements, Shiro kicked the queen's head as she leapt off and landed softly.

Enraged, the queen's body started to enlarge as the armour became the colour of quartz with a slight rainbow pearlescent tint onto of the quartz.

From the wounds of her old wings, neon blue mana gathered together to form 2 pairs of wings.

"Much better." Shiro grinned at the feeling of challenge.