Reborn as the First Boss, Chapter 57

Chapter 57 – The Hidden Door

“PUSH FORWARD!”

The others answered my cry with ones of their own as we charged through the gauntlet of spectral undead. The deadly wraiths were able to damage someone’s soul with a touch, but they were intelligent enough to keep back from a group wielding blades designed precisely to kill them. Fortunately, some quirk of the dungeon meant that the wraiths could not pass through the floors, except when they first appeared. They could still move through walls and the like, so putting our back to the wall wasn’t an option, and if we let ourselves get surrounded, then there was a good chance that the level 32 creatures here on the twelfth floor would be able to overwhelm us.

As we ran, I continued pulling the trigger of my spellshooter as fast as I could. Between my cheating level of Charisma, the blessing of Krenrena, and the [Undead Bane] ability on the weapon, every pull of the trigger knocked off over two thousand HP from whatever I pointed it at, every time, without missing. Most of these creatures only had about eight thousand HP, since undead used their CHA instead of their nonexistent CON to determine HP, and wraiths tended to be either DEX-based Fighters, Rogues, or on occasion, a Dark Priest. Wraith Rangers, Druids, Sorcerers, or Wizards were almost unheard of, and the very idea of a Wraith Paladin would cause the world to stand on its head.

At any rate, spectral undead like wraiths tended to favor DEX, primarily, since it strengthened their attacks, and made them harder to hit in the first place, followed by WIS, which helped them resist effects designed to drive off or control the undead. Not that they would ignore CHA, of course, but it was solidly their third stat. According to the Adventurer’s Guild, who had, somehow, managed to get information directly from a wraith capable of speech, most of their kind just relied on the +2 CHA per level that the Voice of the World gave them as they leveled up.

These wraiths did not try and force a battle. But, any time they saw an opening, they would try to dart in, and strike, only to fall back if they didn’t succeed. A good strategy, considering that the undead did not tire. It was part of what made the twelfth floor, the Shadow Prison, so dangerous, even before the dungeon started changing. Most people I’d talked to said flat-out that it was the most dangerous floor, save only the final one, where you encountered the lich.

Our XP kept creeping higher, as we cut and blasted our way through the undead horde. Eventually, we got to the area the Guild called ‘the Waypoint’. Something about this section of the Shadow Prison created a warding in this particular intersection, keeping the undead at bay. Now, we could turn and fight! And fight we did.

By this point, over fifty of the spectral undead pressed in on the Waypoint, trying to claw at us through the invisible barrier holding them back. I started using the Magic Missile spell with the spellshooter, now, sending five missiles out with every brush of the trigger, and adding the [Explosive Shots] effect to them, each missile dealing just north of two thousand damage to the target, and everything within three meters of it. Each pull of the trigger more or less deleted a grouping of undead.

Of course, I knew this was only possible thanks to my absolutely insane stats and cheating effects. My MP was far higher than it had any right to be at my level, my CHA was a cheat code, especially when Krenrena’s blessing let me add it again to my spells and weapon attacks, and [Undead Bane] doubled all of that when hitting the undead. It did not matter that I was spending 200 MP to send a five-missile burst, when those missiles had auto-aim, area effects, and did over two thousand damage each.

Your party has defeated 69 Spectral Jailers.

You each gain 23000 XP.

Loot:

8500 gp

Spectral Essence x69

Spirit Cloak

You have leveled up!

You are now Level 30.

You have 435420/465000 XP to reach Level 31.

+27 CHA, +6 STR, +6 DEX, +6 WIS, +3 INT, +3 CON

12 Attribute Points to spend.

9 Skill points to spend.

You have reached Level 30. For this achievement, you gain two new spells for each magic category you have unlocked. Spells may still be learned by finding them in the world.

Enchantment Spells

Dominate – Overwhelm a creature’s mind, causing them to act as a puppet on a string for you. Dominated creature cannot use speak or use spells.

Courage – Enchant a creature, making them temporarily immune to fear effects.

Illusion Spells

Seeming – Cloak a group in illusions, making them appear to be something other than they are.

Friends and Foes – Create an illusion, making it impossible for victims to tell friends from foes.

Shielding Spells

Reflect Shield – Shield a creature from mental spells as Mind Shield II, but spells which are completely blocked are turned back on the caster.

False Mind – Create a psychic construct designed to attract hostile spells away from your mind.

Spellshooter Spells

Psychic Shot – Fire a magical bullet that does the weapon’s base damage as psychic damage.

Poison Shot – Fire a magical bullet that does the weapon’s base damage as poison damage.

Known Rituals

Rite of Summoning – Summon a creature from another plane, within a magic circle, to bargain with it, or attempt a binding.

Familiar Binding Ritual – Bind a creature as your familiar.

Divination Magic

Contact Other Plane – Contact beings from another plane in order to ascertain answers to your questions.

Lucky Strikes – Choose one enemy creature. For 1 minute, all your attacks and damaging spells targeting that creature add your Luck to damage, before all other variables. For 1 minute, all the creature’s attacks and damaging spells targeting you add their Luck to damage, before all other variables.

Sensing Magic

Pierce Glamour – See through illusions, without breaking them.

Pierce Concealment – See through concealment (including magical concealment) as though it weren’t there.

Healing Magic

Revivify – Return a creature who has been dead for no more than a minute to life.

Lesser Restoration – Restore damage to one ability score, remove all nonmagical diseases, poisons, and maladies.

Castigating Magic

Krenrena’s Marring Lash – A whip, empowered by the Succubus Queen, strikes the target, reducing one of the creature’s ability scores.

Krenrena’s Mocking Laugh – The caster laughs in the voice of the Succubus Queen. Target is cursed to be unable to perform sexually unless they are being dominated in some way.

Protection Magic

Divine Shield – Conjure a shield of divine power to protect caster and allies from harm.

Deathward – Protect creatures from the special attacks of the undead.

We all paused to catch our breaths, as the notifications played out. In just over nine hours, we’d only managed to get through one and a half levels of the dungeon. That was a slow pace, by any metric. However, it was necessary, thanks to the increased difficulty of the creatures we were facing. After every fight, we needed to stop to heal, and recover both MP and SP.

However, we weren’t exactly doing all of this with no reward. We’d managed to claw our way through three levels worth of XP, thanks in no small part to the bosses we’d fought, along with the entire wraith swarm. Without the barrier keeping them back, that would have been more than just problematic. Even with it, the melee fighters had to keep sharp, or the wraiths would have been able to get them when they got into range.

“It really is lucky that this Waypoint is here,” Jewell said, once she’d recovered her breath. “What do you think is the cause of it? It can’t be just a random act of the gods, designed to give people a chance against all the wraiths.”

“I wonder,” I said, looking around. The entire floor was a series of poorly lit stone corridors with prison cells on either side. There cells had no doors that anyone could see, just metal bars that kept the unfortunate prisoners trapped inside. And there were prisoners, men and women of all races, apparently frozen in time while experiencing all sorts of horrific torments. Even having the [Torture] skill didn’t prepare one for all the horrors we had seen in passing.

Which is what made this area stand out all the more. Three paths met here, as the direct route to the stairs back up to the eleventh floor and the side route that circled past this floor’s treasure room rejoined, and headed on, towards the boss room. The fourth side of this intersection looked as though there should be something there, with an archway and all, but it was bricked up, completely, and no one had ever found any secret door or mechanism. It was one of the lingering mysteries of this dungeon. Everyone suspected that there was something there, but no one had discovered what.

“[Pierce Glamour],” I said, casting one of the new spells I’d learned at Level 30. It was supposed to let me see through illusions. The name suggested it was intended to see through glamours that a fey, illusionist, or succubus might use to hide their true face, but it wasn’t that limited, in practice. And, surprisingly, something appeared.

Only one from another world, possessing a diviner’s magic, shall see this. Only one of demon’s blood, and having both curses and blessings from the gods, shall be able to touch the lock. Only one possessing both a heroic soul and a chaos orb may turn the key.

The words appeared in red, the color of blood, upon the wall in front of me. [Arcane Ritualist] kicked in, hard, as I read the words. This was a form of ritual magic used to seal a powerful creature. However, sealing a powerful creature required a great deal of power, especially since they probably weren’t going to just allow you to seal them. One of the ways to cheat things, and get a discount on the power requirements was to put conditions on the seal.

The condition or conditions could be anything, so long as they were things that were actually possible. So, if you sealed a dragon in a cave, the cave could open every ten years, allowing people to attempt and slay or free the dragon. Or you could have the seal only open to women, or only to virgins. You’d get a further discount if there was some sign, telling those who saw it how to get through the seal. The issue, of course, was that, if you made the condition too broad, or the sign too easy to read, then the seal would obviously be weaker, since people would know how to breach it.

Whoever had done this seal had clearly meant to get as much benefit from the conditions as possible, making it so that it was all but impossible for someone to see the sign. I didn’t know how often people got reincarnated into this world, but it couldn’t be a great ton, and not all of them would have divination magics. And, even if they did see it, well, finding a demon who had both a Divine Curse and a Divine Blessing was not simple. Especially since people didn’t tend to brag about such things openly. Then, the final bit. You needed either a Hero who had gotten a Chaos Orb from a Boss, or a Boss who had gained a Heroic Soul from a Hero in order to actually open the door.

Basically, you needed someone as absurd as me.

Under the crimson letters, there were three circles of stone, slightly raised from the wall and neatly nested inside each other, with a fourth piece in the center, level with the outer wall. There were markings on the wall, just outside the outer layer, and more on all four circles, with what looked to be portions of a symbol on it, but split up, and out of place. This had to be the lock, only it was a puzzle lock. I needed to form the correct symbol to open the way, clearly.

I didn’t know what the symbol was, but I had two pieces that were set in stone, quite literally. The inner piece did not move, and the markings outside the last circle didn’t, either. I just needed to rotate the other three circles, so that the lines matched up. The circles slid smoothly under my direction, until each one clicked into place, retracting so that they were even with the wall. When the final piece clicked, the symbol, which [Religious Doctrine] could only say was the symbol of an unidentifiable divinity, glowed crimson.

From the symbol’s center, a rust-red item emerged, as though the stone were no more solid than water. It was the handle of a key, already inserted into the lock. Without considering the consequences, I turned the key. As the lock clicked open, the stone melted into blood, and drained through the ground, leaving only a darkened corridor beyond.

“M-mistress,” Astruth stammered, “what did you do?”