When he pushed open the heavy doors, Elliot found himself standing before a large chamber carved into the rock.
At the far end of the room stood a strange creature balanced on four spider-like legs. Its lower body resembled that of a giant spider, while its upper body looked like an oversized goblin—powerful arms and two additional spider legs, which were a bit strange because the creature used them like hands.
One of those hands held a magic book engulfed in flame—burning, yet untouched by the fire.
Elliot's eyes narrowed as he spotted it. He had not seen this item before when he had taken a look at the creature, so it caught his attention.
'A book on fire that never burns… Please, don't let it be what I think it is,' he thought, swallowing hard.
On the creature's other spider arm rested a strange, broken mirror.
Meanwhile, its goblin hands gripped a sword, with the other hanging free.
"I saw it from behind earlier, but up close… this thing looks way more dangerous than I expected," Elliot muttered. "Especially because of that little book."
If his luck turned out to be bad, that book might be a Magic Tool—specifically, one capable of creating fireballs. Such tools allowed one to cast spells from a distance, even without being a Soul Mage. Of course, under the premise that the wielder needed to be attuned to the magical elemental attribute.
And judging by the aura it emitted, this beast was likely related to that attribute. It could be a Physical Fire Mage—so his fireball, although less powerful than one of a Soul Mage, is still deadly since it can burn up the oxygen, which was already limited in a dungeon.
Realizing the danger, Elliot knew he had to hurry and act quickly. He signaled the tank to take the front while he followed closely behind. While the killer rat hid in his shadow, low and silent.
He surveyed the room, analyzing the battlefield and trying to devise a strategy while also studying every possible way this strange beast could attack.
When the beast noticed the approaching group, it stood up firmly. It had no real reasoning, so when it saw an enemy, it didn't hesitate to scream, shaking the stone walls.
"KYAAAA!"
It immediately charged forward at alarming speed with its 4 legs, targeting the High Goblin, who immediately braced himself under Elliot's orders and jumped towards it.
Elliot then ordered the rat to look for opportunities to attack the creature's blind spots and quickly identified a few of them for it.
At the same time, the High Goblin leaped into the fray, meeting the dungeon boss head-on. He caught the swinging sword tightly between his forearms, using them like an energy shield.
The impact drove it slightly backwards, but its resistance was slightly superior to withstand the boss's attack, just enough to be able to stand without injuring itself.
Seizing the moment, Elliot jumped into the air from behind and landed behind the boss, aiming to strike its vulnerable spider abdomen.
Even so, the beast was fast—tremendously fast. It managed to dodge with a sudden, powerful leap thanks to its four legs just when Elliot's blow was a hair's breadth away.
'That's at least 20 points in agility…' Elliot thought after seeing its movement. But he also realized that something was off.
The beast wasn't using the full potential of those points.
'As I thought, it's not an Assassin… Agility must be its weakness; it won't be able to dodge one of my attacks again.' He grinned.
But what happened next wiped the smile from his face and left him in shock.
The boss twisted around mid-air and raised the book. The small flames flared brightly—and a massive fireball erupted from it, shooting toward Elliot with deadly speed.
"Shit. How unlucky I am."
Elliot was forced to throw himself backward, narrowly avoiding the fireball. The fireball exploded on the stone floor, its flames licking the walls and setting the entire place on fire, but leaving little mark of the explosion.
At that very moment, the rat, which had somehow managed to climb the nearby walls, leapt at the boss, who was still in the air, aiming for its right eye.
'Did it land?' Elliot's heart suddenly surged with hope and excitement.
He was prepared to strike quickly, but in that narrow time frame, he saw something amazing.
It was only a slight movement, barely a few centimeters, but the dungeon boss managed to dodge precisely, just enough to not lose its eye, but the rat's fangs managed to graze its shoulder.
Elliot immediately frowned and narrowed his eyes in serious thought.
'That wasn't agility that allowed it to dodge that attack. It wouldn't make sense being in such a disadvantageous position… Did it somehow know it beforehand?'
Elliot's gaze flicked to the creature's second spider arm—where the mirror rested.
For a fleeting moment, he thought as if he had seen it shimmering. 'Was it activated?'
'Does that mirror have a special ability?' He thought.
He then pulled out his own mirror and turned it over several times, examining it closely as he realized that both seemed very similar.
Besides, he had come to this dungeon because his mirror had told him that he would find answers here. And now, staring at the mirror in the boss's hand, Elliot wondered if this could be the answer he was looking for.
But he couldn't do anything.
His mirror didn't seem to be active, nor did it seem to have that ability or anything.
In the end, Elliot could only sigh.
The boss fell to the ground moments after being pushed by the rat. The moment it hit the ground, Elliot commanded the tank to attack together.
But what followed wasn't what he had expected.
The boss dodged the first strike with ease. Then a second. Then a third…
By the sixth perfectly timed dodge, Elliot noticed its precision and stopped attacking. His eyes narrowed as he stared at it.
"Predictions. There's no doubt about it, that mirror has some kind of power to predict the opponent's blows," he muttered.
He couldn't help but complain this time. The mirror the dungeon boss wielded granted it the power of predicting his attacks. And that ticked him off—especially since his own mirror couldn't even be activated.
"How's that fair?" he grumbled.
Just then, the boss seemed to grin. Or maybe it was just a trick of the freight—because in the next breath, its face turned terrifying.
Elliot gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on the knife.
"You'd better start using your tricks," he mocked, stepping forward. "Because I don't think you can keep dodging our attacks forever."
Without waiting for any backup, Elliot lunged towards the boss—ignoring the fact that he wasn't a tank. He quickly reached the beast, and his knife clashed against the boss's sword. The force of his attack was greater, allowing him to push the beast backward.
Then, he immediately shouted: "To the sides! Flank it, quick!"
Then he attacked again and again, leaping to the opposite side of the boss just as his two summons closed in for an attack. Even so, it acted quickly and defended itself by casting an extremely powerful fireball—only the second spell it had used since the fight had begun.
It immediately hurled the spell at Elliot, recognizing him as the greatest threat. But before it could land, Elliot's new summon intercepted it, taking the brunt of the blast.
The explosion pushed him back, but he managed to hold on long enough.
The explosion illuminated the whole room, and in that brief flash of chaos, Elliot darted to attack the creature from a blind spot.
'I can't let it keep using fire attacks,0 he thought. 'It's getting harder and harder to breathe.'
At his full speed, he drove his knife deep into the spider's hand—the very one upon which the small piece of the mirror rested.
"KYAAAAAA!"
The dungeon boss shrieked in agony. Elliot yanked his blade back with all his strength and, at the same time, ripped the item from the goblin's hand, leaving a brutal wound behind.
He barely had the time to shift nimbly towards the other hand, aiming to snatch the magic book, when the goblin lashed out. The blow slammed into him like a cannonball, hurling him across the room until he crashed against a nearby wall in a burst of explosion.
"Shit," he cursed, dragging himself upright as soon as he could. His summons were still in the fight, and he had no time to rest.
"He'll attack with more magic now, so be careful!" Elliot's shout echoed in the rat's only ear as it again tried to attack the spider's eyes.
The rat didn't seem to understand, or perhaps it wasn't expecting it, but the next moment, a huge ball of fire appeared in front of its eyes and struck it directly, causing a powerful explosion on the other side of the room.
The boss turned its hateful gaze toward Elliot, and with a blood-curdling roar, its body erupted into flames, followed by a battle cry full of hatred: "KYAAAAA!"
Flames coiled around the goblin's two massive hands, amplifying its already monstrous physique. It realized that the situation would turn dangerous for itself and needed to use its real power.
The fire caused his already massive goblin muscles to grow, enveloping his body in a hot energy.
Then he roared once again, ready to tear his enemies to shreds.
But Elliot only smiled, cold and sharp.
Moving like a shadow, he slipped through the boss's blind spot and climbed onto its back.
"Even if you want to use all your power now, it's too late."
Then, he immediately unleashed a flurry of strokes, inflicting countless wounds on its spider-like body. Then, with a leap, he reached the goblin's upper body and drove his knife near its eye, momentarily blinding it with a burst of pain.
Although it only lasted for a moment, that was all they needed.
Elliot's goblin summon, who had somewhat recovered from the previous explosion, sprang forward and latched itself onto the boss's neck, immobilizing it. The rat, badly injured but burning with rage, reappeared and plunged its sharp claws into the boss's remaining eye.
The intense rage from the rat seemed to overflow from its body, and it felt like it had a mind of its own.
Although the boss tried to defend itself using its physical magic, caught in a simultaneous assault from all sides, the creature writhed.
It tried to retaliate with magic, but magic couldn't hit those above him. Besides, Elliot was the only one who felt any heat, while the invocations didn't feel it. However, thanks to his high resistance, he didn't feel much.
Therefore…
A few more seconds passed, filled with frenzied strikes and desperate shrieks.
And then—
[You have killed the E-Rank Boss: Inventor Goblin's Spider Chimera.]
[You have received 6 stat points.]
[The E-Rank Dungeon of the Inventor Goblin's Spider Chimera Boss has been cleared.]
[Congratulations, Newbie Player: Elliot Clark.]
Elliot finally smiled. Joy surged through him in many ways; it was too intense to even focus on the system messages.
'I have no doubts,' he thought, breathless. 'I'm not like any of those Awakened. My stats aren't restricted. I can use 100% of all my stats.'