Is It Wrong To Devour Monsters In The Dungeon - Chapter 14.1

The speed at which they traversed their way down through the floors of the dungeon towards the seventeenth floor, was astounding.

…For a level one.

Ais had to slow her own pace for her new…teacher, trainer? Life coach? Whatever he was to her, while her own pace had been slowed considerably, his own was nothing short of mind boggling for a level one.

It made sense she supposed, especially considering he could apparently level up if he wanted…after only a few weeks.

She was the recorded fastest to ever level up and it took her a year. Caelan, was capable of it in less than a tenth of the time it took her to do so.

It led more credence to her decision to follow his teachings.

So as they travelled downwards, she watched him keenly as he tore his way through every single monster that came his way. From Silverbacks to Hard Armours, from Crystal Mantis' to humongous Lyger Fang's. One and all, he tore them apart with his bare hands and teeth.

Half way through the fifteenth floor a Wyvern spawned, and barely had time to do anything before the boy was upon it, grasping both ends of its mouth with his hands and prying its mouth open before spitting a great gout of flame down its throat and roasting it from the inside out.

And then a pack of minotaurs spawned and rushed them right after. Only for him to create a pair of crystal daggers across his forearms and call upon his flame enchantment to slice through the bull-men monsters like a hot knife through butter.

In less than an hour, they'd arrived at the staircase leading down to the seventeenth floor.

And each monster he felled, left behind a magic stone that was promptly consumed by her would be teacher and fuelled his growing strength.

…However, strong as he was, she could not see him having the power to bring down the Goliath alone.

"Are…you sure you want to do this?" she questioned. Strong as he was, and as much as he knew about getting stronger and using the falna to his benefit, he had never encountered the Goliath before.

It was…in a completely differently class than the monsters he had faced so far on the way down here.

"Yeah it should be fine," the boy grinned at her, and there was a glowing glint of palpable excitement sparking in his iris, he was reminding her a lot of Tiona right now, she always loved to fight strong monsters too, "I know it's way stronger than me, but not so much where it could kill me instantly and before you could do anything if I get in over my head."

…"Ah, okay." Ais simply nodded and agreed.

He was not wrong after all. The Goliath was simply too slow to stop her from doing much of anything, especially with Ariel.

She would keep alert for sure just in case though, ready to move at a moments notice. She after all, could not afford to let this boy die.

"Right, let's get going then." Caelan beckoned her to follow him and the boy boldly made his way down the stairs to the seventeenth floor.

Setting her hand on the pommel of her durandal blade, Ais followed down behind him, getting ready to act at a moments notice.

When they reached the bottom, they found themselves stepping into a wide open straight forward cavernous room, the only thing that really stood out in it, being the left wall which was made up of a shimmering crystal that looked almost like a mirror.

Caelan whistled looking at it, "So that's the great wall of sorrow huh?" he examined it, before nodding, "I thought it was gonna be…bigger, not gonna lie. This thing has to barely be over thirty feet."

He showed how different he was from the norm once again. He didn't seem at all impressed by the structure. Most who made it down here for the first time, were usually struck by the wall.

But…not him apparently.

*Crack*

The ground shook and an ominous crack formed on the middle of the wall. She saw Caelan tense, the grin on his face widening as it began.

The wall shattered and an ear shaking roar echoed through the depths of the dungeon as a towering humanoid behemoth with glowing crimson red eyes and long scraggly green eyes burst free from the wall of sorrow.

The monster rex, Goliath.

The floor boss of floor seventeen.

With huge bulging muscles and arms too long to be human, the beast turned its eyes towards them and roared once more.

Many an adventurer had fallen to their knees and wet themselves in terror at the sight of the roaring monster rex.

Caelan…tilted his head even as it roared at them and just stared, incredulous, "…What…why is it so small?" he goggled, outright disappointment appearing in his tone.

"Small?" Ais blinked, confused.

The Goliath did not care for their conversation and with a roar, it rushed towards them in a sprint, with heavy foot falls that fell like rumbling thunder and shook the ground beneath them.

"Blaze!" Caelan declared, his enchantment erupting into an aura around his form and enhancing his body and jumping back and avoiding the huge fist it sent his way, while she leapt to the opposite side, out of the way while it targeted him.

"Yeah, small, this thing is barely over twenty feet tall, are you kidding me, I was expecting something at least fifty feet!" he shouted as he landed, before kicking off the ground and rushing towards the great humanoid monster, landing atop its fist it had buried into the ground and rushing up its arm, "And it's so slow as well!"

It swept its other arm across trying to swat the boy off of its body, but he merely jumped and zipped over it, before launching himself up and burying a thunderous flame clad punch into the beasts cheek.

Its head moved to the side from the force, but no more than that. With a roar, it swept its first fist up to squash him, only for him to flip backwards and avoid it, and let it smash its own palm into its face, the Goliath roaring from the self inflicted blow and stumbling back few steps.

"…Well it's durability at least lives up to the hype." Caelan snorted as he landed on the ground.

"It's not a speed based monster. While it is faster than a minotaur, it's true strength is in its durability, physical strength and its skin," Ais informed him, "Its skin makes it highly resistant to damage."

"Gotcha," Caelan cracked his neck, "Let's try this then!" he shouted, and a split moment later, gleaming blue crystal gauntlets with clawed fingers formed on his arms while similar armoured boots appeared on his feet.

He took in a deep breath, before opening his mouth wide and firing a great big large gout of flame from his mouth towards the Goliath's face.

In return, it howled, unleashing a powerful shockwave that tore through the flames and dispersed them.

But Caelan had already moved, zipping in a blur between its legs and with his clawed gauntlets clad in flame he slashed them into the back of the monsters heel, trying to tear out the skin and make it fall.

To no avail, his clawed gauntlets gave an audible screeching grind and failed to penetrate the beasts hide.

"No dice huh?" he laughed.

His grin only got wider despite his failure.

The Goliath roared once more, stepping back and raising a foot up to stop down on him, only for him to thrust one hand up, and a cloud of purple spores to erupt and shoot up like a gale of wind and enshroud the beasts face.

It stopped, stumbling back as the spores seeped into its mouth and nose and hovered around its face like a cloud.

It was stunned for a moment as it choked and Caelan thrust his other hand up, unleashing a wave of flame that shot up and impacted the cloud of purple most likely poisonous spores.

And a great explosion erupted around the beasts head.

Despite herself, Ais felt her eyes widen as the monster rex stumbled back from the explosion…and tripped.

It crashed thunderously into the ground on its back, a coughing roar escaping all the way, though its outer skin was no worse for wear at all.

Caelan was not content to give it any chance at all to regain its bearings. With a shout, he suddenly exploded forward, his speed enhanced by his flame enchantment, suddenly increasing by another notable amount as he leapt up onto the beasts broad chest and zipped up towards its head.

It lashed out blindingly, instinctively, trying to grab him, but as it did, he leapt over it again, jumping over them easily and coming down towards its skull, both clawed gauntlets poised, superheated with the flames circling around his body.

And as he landed atop its head, Caelan thrust his clawed gauntlets down straight into one of its eyes and Ais watched stunned as the boy unleashed a massive wave of flame straight through both hands inside its eye and began roasting it from the inside out of its skull!

The Goliath roared and thrashed in agony as its pierced eye boiled and cooked and its brain began to follow not long later.

But, it would not be a monster rex, if it fell so easily.

It roared, unleashing a howling shock wave that shot up and slammed into the ceiling above, tearing great beg rents of debris from it, while it brought both arms up and slammed them against its face with all its strength in an attempt to crush Caelan.

He apparently saw it coming though and sprang backwards, up over its arms. She heard its skull crunch from the blow even as he flipped and angled around over it mid-air and spread his arms out, purple spores forming around one hand and flame in the other.

He thrust both down straight towards its open mouth, the flame and poisonous spores mixing together just as they entered its mouth and erupting once more into a roaring explosion.

Its roars cut off and its body thrashed for only a few split moments, before going limp.

Caelan landed on its chest, mouth filling with glittering embers of flame once more and he spat out another gout of flame enveloping the bodies upper torso and head in a wave of flame.

"Come on!" he roared himself, a savage smile on his lips as he cut it off and then began punching his fists out, unleashing blasts of flame one after another, "Let's see you survive this!" he laughed, as he pulled both fists back and then unleashed them as one, firing two great waves of flame from his fists that merged together and slammed into the corpses head like a roaring blazing tsunami.

He kept roasting the corpse with his flames for a good ten seconds, before a confused look finally appeared on his face and he cut off the flow of flame, the enchantment disappearing from around his body.

He panted deeply, sweat pouring down his face and stared, "…It's dead…?" he said blankly, "…But…but, what about its regeneration?"

"Goliath's don't have regeneration?" Ais offered, making her way over to the boy who stood atop the corpse of the monster rex.

Doing her level best all the while to contain her own shock.

He…had won.

As a level one, he'd completely destroyed the Goliath. It did not make sense, it was considered a level four monster, yet he'd killed it alone.

It did not make sense to be honest. Even with his abilities, all he had on the Goliath was a speed advantange.

It had height, reach, resistance to all he could do, superior durability by far, and the same for its strength.

Yet it hadn't even touched him and was powerless after he had targeted its weak points.

She could not wrap her mind around it.

…But if nothing else, this was just more confirmation, that she needed his teachings.

"…Oh…" Caelan replied and then sighed, shoulders slumping in obvious disappointment. Had he come down here challenging the Goliath thinking it could regenerate?

That was…interesting to know?