Chapter 69: The Boss Only Had One Life
Chapter 69: The Boss Only Had One Life
The Rotmist Salamander had made a single mistake.
It killed Glitch while Jin was recording everything.
Most Tamers could only learn about a boss while struggling to keep themselves and their beasts alive. Jin had another option. He could spend an avatar’s entire life collecting data, lose it, and still bring back a recording of every second.
This time, he would return with that knowledge.
Preparation consumed several hours. Jin and Glitch gathered six Corrosive Glands, charted a safer path from the Lower Drain checkpoint, and selected three spots where Glitch could direct the Salamander’s Acid Breath. Three Rustjaw Scutes went into the arena as well. One was hidden behind a damaged pipe close to the boss’s neck, another bridged an acid-coated gap, and the third waited beside the slanted route up to the filtration platform.
The recording also confirmed the most important detail. Whenever the Salamander used a full breath, it was slower turning left afterward.
Jin waited until the avatar had recovered all of its health and stamina. Only then did he explain what they were attempting.
Damaging the gills may just reduce its healing. It might not shut it down.
Glitch’s answer came across with roughly this meaning:
Then we rip them off and see.
That level of confidence would have been alarming in an ordinary beast preparing to challenge an enemy two Stars above it. Glitch, however, had already died once that day. He clearly wanted someone else to have a turn.
His real body stayed secure on the blanket while the digital avatar entered the dungeon alone.
[Rotmist Salamander — Area Boss]
[Bronze Quality]
[Rank 1 Novice, 4-Star]
[Traits: Toxic Aura, Acid Breath, Rapid Regeneration]
[Combat Data: Partial]
[Corrosive Glands Allocated: 6]
[Rustjaw Scutes Allocated: 3]
They had six glands and three scutes. Timing would have to cover everything those materials could not.
Glitch smashed the first gland onto a support while the Salamander’s tail passed just above his skull. The second went on between two lunges. He planted the third as Acid Breath burned a sizzling stripe across the route behind him.
Corrosion Resistance kept the toxin meter from climbing as fast.
It could not keep it still.
Jin treated every part of the setup as its own exchange. Draw an attack. Evade. Place one gland. Pull back. The six Corrosive Glands gradually ate through six separate points holding the enormous filtration platform over the reservoir.
Once the final gland had been applied, Glitch waited near the last untouched support.
The boss would not use its breath.
It had recognized what they were doing. Rather than spend its toxin reserve, the Salamander attacked with its foreclaws and jaws.
Glitch gave it a reason to reconsider.
He passed under its bite and dragged his claws across one of the luminous external gills. The injury was shallow, and it started repairing itself at once as energy travelled up from the reservoir through the frilled tissue.
Glitch slashed the same place again.
The Salamander lifted its body and unleashed a complete Acid Breath.
Glitch held his position until the cone’s direction was fixed. Then he jumped clear.
The blast hit the last support.
Already weakened in six places by the glands and years of corrosion, the structure could no longer hold. Every remaining brace gave way.
The filtration platform crashed down as if the ceiling had dropped.
It struck the reservoir’s edge and crushed the Salamander along one flank. Its tail and one rear leg became trapped beneath the wreckage. The impact also forced its neck above the poisonous liquid, exposing the glowing gills completely.
With a scream, the Salamander began wrenching itself out.
Dropping the platform had not ended the battle. It had only given Jin a limited amount of time.
He still needed the boss to spend another full Acid Breath. That would drain enough of its internal reserve to bring its regeneration to the weakest state they had observed. Unfortunately, the Salamander now understood what they were trying to force. It used its teeth and claws instead, refusing to waste the attack they wanted.
Glitch ran along the trapped side and struck the injured gill twice more.
Eventually, fury won over caution.
Acid Breath poured through the arena.
Glitch hurled himself behind the first Rustjaw Scute they had positioned earlier. The outer edge of the cone swept over the plate. Cracks spread through it, and acid began eating it away, but it held for the one moment Glitch required.
The Salamander’s gills darkened when the breath stopped. Its crushed flank continued repairing itself, though the process had slowed considerably.
Glitch burst out from behind the scute. He focused localized Harden through his foreclaws and ripped into the already damaged gill frill.
Healing across the Salamander’s body turned sluggish and inconsistent.
It continued anyway.
"Some effect," Jin muttered. "Wonderful."
The boss changed tactics.
Instead of releasing another full cone, it spat short bursts of acid to close off routes without emptying its toxin reserve. Following one of those bursts, it did not make the slow left turn shown in the recording. It whipped sharply to the right.
The section of tail it had already freed clipped Glitch.
Harden prevented the impact from crushing him, but his health fell hard. Lesser Regeneration triggered and began spending stamina to mend the worst injuries. The toxin meter kept rising at the same time.
Everything started going wrong at once. The platform was losing its hold on the Salamander. One set of gills was still undamaged. Glitch had no chance in a direct fight, and only two Rustjaw Scutes remained.
The screen offered Jin nothing useful.
The Salamander drew in a breath.
Jin recognized the preparation for a full Acid Breath and directed Glitch toward the safe angle they had mapped.
The boss stopped inhaling and lunged straight into that route.
It had faked the attack.
Jin realized it just a little too late.
Glitch did not.
Rather than obey, he halted and reversed direction, slipping beneath the Salamander’s lunging jaw. Its teeth snapped shut behind him.
Jin nearly sent a correction during that half-second. Instead, he abandoned his own call and followed Glitch’s decision. The sudden reversal had carried the avatar directly below the damaged gills. As he passed, Glitch tore them open once more.
Their weakening glow flickered.
Good, Jin sent. You read it, and I’ll read it. We do both.
Glitch answered with savage approval.
Metal groaned beneath the boss. Its pinned rear leg was close to escaping. If the Salamander made it back into the reservoir, it would erase everything they had achieved with one death and several hours of work.
Jin still had the option to withdraw and save the avatar. Doing so would mean losing every gland and scute they had used, while the arena and boss reset.
He chose to continue.
Glitch sprinted over the second scute, using it to cross the gap covered in acid. The plate hissed under his feet. He reached the Salamander’s crushed flank and struck with enough force to make it turn toward him.
The untouched gills swung into view.
A final full Acid Breath burst from the Salamander.
Glitch dived behind the third Rustjaw Scute and flattened himself against the ground. The blast only caught the plate’s edge. Even that was enough. The scute dissolved completely.
Almost all light vanished from the gills.
With the Salamander’s regeneration reduced to a weak crawl, Glitch charged up the tilted filtration platform. He launched himself onto the creature’s neck and drove the remaining power of Harden into both his jaws and claws.
First, he shredded the last intact gill tissue.
Then he attacked the neck wound they had repeatedly opened during the battle.
A faint and uneven stream of healing still worked through the Salamander’s body. Its toxin reserve was empty, though. Its flank remained crushed, and the fallen platform kept it away from the reservoir. Glitch widened the wound faster than the boss could repair it.
The Salamander made one last effort to drag itself toward the glowing waste.
Its jaws came to rest only inches above the liquid.
Its body went slack.
[Area Boss Defeated: Rotmist Salamander]
[Rustwater Drain — First Clear Complete]
[Clear Attempts: 2]
[Avatar Deaths: 1]
[Exploration Progress: 63% → 100%]
Glitch remained standing on the Salamander’s dead neck. His health was almost gone, his stamina was empty, and the toxin meter had climbed deep into the red.
"That was close," Jin whispered. "Much too close."
The reward notifications opened.
[Boss Core Obtained: Rotmist Salamander Core ×1]
[Coins Obtained: 275]
[Rotmist Venom Sac ×1]
[Skill Fragment Obtained: Acid Breath — 1/3]
[Full-Clear Route Optimization Available]
Jin immediately focused on the skill fragment. Every battle so far had forced Glitch to reach an enemy with his claws or teeth. Acid Breath would give him another way to fight.
One fragment did not provide the skill, but now Jin knew what he could work toward.
Full-Clear Route Optimization would allow him to create better Auto-Battle paths through the finished dungeon. The boss encounter was another matter. An adaptive 4-Star enemy would still need to be fought manually.
[Unsynchronized Growth Load: Moderate]
[Sync Available]
Defeating the boss had placed even more growth into storage. Jin left Sync untouched. Meridian’s food allowance would not begin until after he arrived, and processing that much stored growth would require more food than his family could afford to give up.
The real Glitch woke on the blanket. He looked down at the phone with the satisfaction of a conqueror inspecting an enemy he had personally destroyed.
"You did earn that," Jin said, rubbing beneath his jaw. "The reversal kept the attempt alive. My command was wrong, and you caught the feint first."
Glitch raised his head another inch.
"Try not to become unbearable."
He became unbearable immediately.
"Jin!" Elsa shouted from the other side of the apartment. "Are you done packing for the school you’re leaving for in four days?"
Jin glanced between his mostly unfilled bag, the dungeon-clear screen, the Acid Breath fragment, and Glitch’s victorious pose above the phone.
"I got a lot done today."
"That wasn’t my question."
Two timers appeared.
[Departure for Meridian: 4 Days Remaining]
[Rotmist Salamander Encounter Reset: 23:59:41]
In twenty-four hours, the Salamander’s digital encounter would return, restoring the boss along with the arena. Rustwater Drain was complete, but the fragment had given Jin a reason to fight it again.
There were other things he needed to do. He still had to pack, get ready for Meridian, and spend time with his family. Another boss attempt would also consume valuable drops, with no guarantee that a second skill fragment would appear.
The sensible choice could not have been clearer.
Of course, having one fragment out of three was exactly the sort of thing that started a grinding addiction.