Archmage Anderson's Test Subject

Facing the incoming Murloc elites, the trio brandished their weapons and started an all-out fight with the water-based creatures. All while this was going on, Archmage Anderson was looking at the group with mirth in its eyes. Archmage Anderson never took the trio seriously and after looking at them for a while, he summoned a few more elites then returned to the center of the swirling cloud of mana.

As for Kirou and the two lady elves, they were busy fighting back against the Murloc elites summoned by Anderson. While they weren't hard to defeat, it was taking the trio some time to get through them. And as for the new set summoned by Anderson, Kirou saw when they were summoned and couldn't help but furrow his eyebrows.

'Just what is that bastard Murloc doing in the cloud that needs him to keep us busy like this. I'm positive he knows that we can kill these guys since we made it here so what is he doing in there that needs us to be stalled?' Those were Kirou's thoughts while glancing around the battlefield mid-combat.

"Let's speed this up. I've got a bad feeling about that boss." This was said by Reya as she too noticed the abnormality of that boss monster just summoning out elite murlocs to stall them.

Navi herself agreed to this and started to abuse the privilege she had within this dungeon over Reya and Kirou, her high tiered stats. She stopped using just normal attacks when battling and started including her skills to speed up the process.

This theory went out the window less than two minutes later, however, as the monsters guarding the swirling cloud engaged the trio as another set walking out from the center of the cloud. Seeing this happen caused Kirou to narrow his eyes slightly.

"You two, sneak past those murlocs at the entrance and enter the mana cloud. I'll deal with these elites and catch up," said Kirou to both the elf women.

"Are you sure you'll be able to handle it?" asked Navi with a bit of concern. The reason for this is because there are currently thirty elite murlocs in the room at the moment, not counting the boss.

"Don't worry about it. Just go. We can't let that bastard succeed in whatever it's planning." As Kirou said this, he summoned two shadow clones to join him in the fight. Seeing their appearance gave Navi some relief before she turned towards Reya. Both women did a simple nod before breaking away from combat.

A few of the Murloc elites tried to go after both women but Kirou swapped his weapon from the claws to the gunblade tonfas before firing a few rounds on those stray murlocs, drawing their attention towards him. As for the set guarding the entrance to the cloud, Kirou tossed over two objects that blew up on those Murloc elites, causing two [-250] damage indicators to float over their heads. That caused those murlocs to rush towards Kirou as well, giving both women the chance they needed to enter the cloud unimpeded.

As they were entering the swirling cloud of mana, both women looked back on Kirou for a bit before reaffirming their resolve and rushing into the cloud.

As for Kirou, he was currently facing thirty Murloc elites with the help of his two clones. Facing this situation, he didn't have any worry about himself facing any danger but a thought kept appearing in his mind.

'I hope those two will be able to survive until I get there. I've got a bad feeling about that boss after all.'

*****************

Kirou's bad feeling was confirmed when both elf women entered the cloud. Inside, they saw two murlocs. One was strapped to a table with its chest open and a large gem hovering over the open wound. As for the other, that was Murloc Archmage Anderson standing over the table chanting an incantation.

Both women took the chance to look at the stats of the boss monster in front of them but what they saw frightened them.

Monster: Murloc Archmage Anderson (Boss)

Level: ?

HP: ?

Att: ?

Def: ?

Skills: ?

Besides the name, all the other fields for Murloc Archmage Anderson was filled with question marks. This caused the women to subconsciously want to retreat. Unfortunately for them, Archmage Anderson had noticed their presence as soon as they entered.

"Oh, what's this? I thought I left some guards by the entrance." After saying this, Archmage Anderson waved his staff, which conjured up a screen showing Kirou fighting off the thirty Murloc elites for the entire room to see.

"Very interesting. He's using a very interesting skill there. It reminds me of a certain bastard dog I want dead." When Archmage Anderson said that, he had a malevolent expression on his face. It seems like Archmage Anderson had problems with the creator of that skill. If Kirou was in the room, he would know exactly who Archmage Anderson was referring to.

While Reya was still hesitating on what to do, Navi spoke up at this moment, "Murloc Archmage Anderson, to what do we juniors owe the pleasure of meeting you today?" As Navi asked this, she cupped her hands and gave a polite bow to the Murloc Archmage. Regardless of the race, getting to the level of Archmage is a difficult feat and as such, deserves to be respected.

"Oh. A polite one, eh." As Archmage Anderson said this, he started to scratch his chin while looking at the girls in interest. "It seems like you understand the difference between us, young one."

It was at this time that Reya decided to speak up, "Yes, Senior. We have been assigned a mission to investigate the area when we came across you here."

Hearing her words, Archmage Anderson spoke up with a smile on his face, "Since you are such interesting juniors, I don't mind telling you why I am here."

After saying this, Archmage Anderson pointed to the gem hovering about the Murloc body on the table before speaking, "I am experimenting on this junior of mine to see if he can accept a portion of my powers. That gem floating above him is an orb of highly concentrated mana that I have created. I've been doing this with a whole bunch of juniors and so far, this is the only one who's managed to last this long." As he said this, Archmage Anderson had a proud look on his face.

At the same time that Archmage Anderson finished speaking, both Reya and Navi were hit with a system message.

[System Message: You have completed a quest objective.]

[Investigate the nature of mana surge: Complete]

Looking at the message they just received, both women shared a look that revealed surprise at how they managed to complete that objective.

'It seems like Kirou wasn't wrong when he said that talking to NPCs reveal unexpected surprises.' This was Reya's thought as both she and Navi focused back their attention towards Archmage Anderson.

Before either group could say another word, however, a strange event occurred. The body that was strapped to the table and forced to absorb the Archmage's mana started to transform. Looking at the change, Archmage Anderson could only release a sigh.

"It looks like this one is another failure as well. Oh well. At least I've gotten more data from this one so I may be able to succeed next time." After saying this, Archmage Anderson who seemed to be disappointed cheered himself before staring back at the two elf women before him. Looking at them, the Archmage started to smile before speaking, "Since I'm done with this failure, why don't I leave you two to deal with it. You came here to kill him anyway, so here he is. Since I've inadvertently made him stronger through my experiments, why don't I leave a reward for your party for cleaning up my mess."

Following his words, Archmage Anderson did a quick chant and summoned what appeared to be a treasure chest next to him. Satisfied, he then turned to the women and spoke, "Consider what's in this box payment for doing this job. You'll only be able to open it after taking care of this failure so I suggest you get prepared. Anyway, I've got to go now. Bye." Done speaking, Archmage Anderson waved his staff and a teleportation circle appeared underneath his body. After a few seconds, Archmage Anderson faded out of existence and now the women were left in an area with a treasure chest and a Murloc whose body was currently transforming.

Before the women could think further on the matter, the body on the table broke free of its restraints and it stared at both women for a few seconds then started rushing towards them. Due to the events that just happened, the girls were a bit slow to react and this caused the creature to get close. Just as it was about to hit, however, the women reacted quickly and dodged its attack.

Having dodged its attack, both women adopted a serious expression on their faces. The reason for that is because both had lost some health from that missed attack. Both gave each other a look and a nod before they started the fight properly.

While fighting, the only thought on both women's minds was, 'I hope he finishes up and gets here soon.'

**************

Kirou had just finished off the last Murloc elite when he saw Navi get blasted out of the swirling cloud. Following Navi was a huge Murloc which seems to have suffered immensely as various parts of its body were in different shades and sizes. Immediately following that Murloc out of the cloud was Reya constantly firing arrow after arrow against the beast, achieving little success in damage.

Seeing the state of the women, Kirou rushed towards the mutated Murloc with his clones while asking, "Just what happened in there? Where's Anderson? And what the hell is this thing?" Even while asking questions, Kirou made sure to toss some items in the direction of the mutated Murloc, dealing a bunch of [-250] damage figures above its head. It's only when it got closer that he got to see its information.

Monster: Mutated Murloc Warrior Jake (Hidden Boss)

Level: 20

HP: 131,750/150,000

Att: 500

Def: 10

Skills: Reckless Charge, Wind Slash, Stunning Blow, Frost Armor, Berserk

The information caused Kirou's eyes to narrow slightly but he still ran up to face the creature. He couldn't allow Navi to face Jake head-on as she wouldn't survive another hit.

Reya was the one who answered Kirou's question while Navi was retreating from Jake, "Anderson was experimenting and this guy is the result. Anderson called it a failure and left it for us to take care of."

Kirou released a sigh as he started to fire charged shots at Warrior Jake, only now managing to build up more hatred than Navi. Having gotten the boss's attention, Kirou had his clones rush upfront while he kept firing from a distance, effectively kiting it around the room.

[-210]

[-350]

[-130]

[-510]

[-270]

Those were the damage figures that kept appearing over the mutated boss's head as the group unleashed their skills on the boss. Unfortunately for the trio, they could only do this a few times every minute as they had to do their best to avoid getting hit by the boss's reckless charge, which it uses every 40 seconds, and the wind slash which triggers on every other attack the boss manages to make.

The fight was quite steep for the trio. This became even more so roughly half an hour later when they finally managed to drop the boss down to 50% health. As soon as it hit the 50% mark and Kirou tried to land a charged shot on it, Kirou was greeted with this message.

<Parry>

[-60]

The reason for this was simple; Murloc Warrior Jake's body was currently covered by an armor of ice. This made the trio simultaneously scowl while looking at the boss's body. The armor of ice slowly appeared on its body and by the time it was done, the Murloc warrior had the appearance of a normal warrior wearing plate armor, except this plate armor was frosty white in color.

Looking at the frost armored Murloc warrior in front of him, Kirou could only release a breath to release his anger at the boss's action.

"I better be able to harvest this one for all the crap I'm going through," said Kirou he continued unleashing a barrage of attacks from his gunblade tonfas, dealing a bunch of [-35] damage figures on Jake. Hearing his words caused both women to smile as they continued to unleash their skills on Warrior Jake, even though their damage figures were a lot lower.