The Unrecorded Extra

Goose's body lay motionless on the ground as I frantically dodged the water jet shot by Finrax, the dungeon boss monster.

I didn't have the luxury of time to mourn him right now, my very life was on the line here. With one wrong move, I could end up like him. And surely I would definitely be dead unlike him.

'Finrax…'

…was the name of the dungeon boss monster.

It was impossible to have a named monster in a low-ranked dungeon. But, this was not a normal dungeon. Every boss monster inside a pre-outburst dungeon was all a named monster even if said dungeon was a lower rank.

To be completely honest, I had never heard the name of Fishman boss monster. Finrax was a complete alien, the one creature I was forced to fight with an empty head–not that I needed to act like an idiot, but more like a fight without knowing your enemy.

But, it's okay. I can do it!

Swoooshh–!

Another water jet flew like a bullet. Even so, I was able to dodge it barely. The water jet's speed was almost too fast that my usual predicting ability could only predict at the last moment.

This won't do. If I kept staying here and didn't take the initiative, it would keep shooting the water bullet at me. Moreover, if the water bullet's speed increased the more it shot, it would be hard to dodge it anymore.

While the water bullet was still slow, it would be best if I advanced forward and closed our distance to force it into close-fight combat.

Swoosh—!

Dodging another water bullet, I rushed forward. Deflecting and dodging every ranged attack of the Fishman boss. It was not easy, but it was a thing I could manage after learning from the best, Shannon–one who claimed as the best sword fighter both in strength and mobility in her class year.

'Almost there!'

The distance between me and the monster was getting closer. As close as the monster's shape was visible now.

The creature stood upright like a human, but its appearance was far from human-like. Its scaly skin had a bluish tint, and its head was clearly that of a fish, complete with bony features. Its arms and legs seemed too small to support its bulky torso, and I couldn't help but wonder how it managed to stand and move with such a disproportionate build.

One hand was holding a metal spear with three blades that converge at a central point. The center blade was longer and straight than the other two, which were curved outward.

A trident.

The creature inhaled empty air, if one looked carefully, the raindrop that was also got sucked was turning into a small circular bubble of water before it entered its mouth.

Exhaling it, or more like, shooting it out, the water bullet gushed loudly and flew like a bullet.

Because the distance between me and the creature was closer than earlier, the bullet reached me in a split second but I still managed to cut it with my sword which I already held and positioned in front of me in case I should block another water jet as dodging was extremely hard.

It proved to me right to do so. I survived another one-shot attack from Finrax, the Fishman boss monster. Although the result of it was that my hands were shaking from blocking the high-speed solid water bullet.

Noticing its opponent, me, approaching, the aquatic monster lifted its trident, and suddenly a rush of water gushed forth from the ground with a gurgling whoosh.

I leaped into the air, reflexively dodging the water pillars that continued to burst forth from the ground and hurtle toward me. But, as expected from fighting with an unknown enemy. I got ambushed by the water pillars that gushed forth even higher than before.

Swinging my sword, I tried to block the gushed waters, hoping I could cut them or at least lessen the impact I would receive if I got hit by them.

"Guh!"

I dropped to the ground with a hard thud, breaking some of my bones, again. Just how much more bones I would break?!

The pain had me close my eyes for a moment, then when I opened them again, three water spears sped up to stab me on the ground.

Struggling as hard as I could, like a worm, I rolled and writhed as I dodged the spears.

Splash–! Splash–! Splash–!

Standing up after the last roll, I quickly grabbed the hilt of my sword and raised it upward. Blocking the trident the boss monster had thrust toward me.

"Going to brute force after all that, huh?"

"Hu…man…! Be…gone!!!" the fishman monster shrieked.

The monster's shriek assaulted my ears. My head hurt as if it was about to split in two as my eardrums vibrated because of the shrieking sounds.

"Keuk!"

Despite the pressure of its weapon weight and the intense shrieking sound that might as well as breaking my ears, I stood still with gritted teeth.

As my sword was stuck between the trident's trio blades, I had no choice but kicked the aquatic monster in the guts. Focusing all of my strength on my feet, the monster backed up when my kick landed in his guts.

"Huu…"

Now, what should I do next? Should I go for offensive or keep on defensive?

The incessant rain poured down even harder.

The three layers of clothing I wore made it difficult to move freely in the rain, as the wet fabric clung to my skin. The biting cold was slowly draining my energy, causing my teeth to chatter uncontrollably.

'I'll be at a disadvantage if I didn't end this soon…'

It was all because of the rain and my clothing. If only it didn't rain and I wore simpler clothes, this fight wouldn't be that hard.

'Anyway, when will he be back?'

I looked over my shoulder just to see Goose's body still laying motionless on the ground. But, the hole in his body was already gone.

'That sonuvabitch!'

While I was distracted, a predicting vision flashed before my eyes where the boss monster shot a water bullet. Thanks to that, I could dodge the ambush of another water bullet that could leave a hole in my head. A clean headshot, I'd like to say.

Ignoring him, I put my attention back to my opponent, Finrax the fishman dungeon boss monster. Looking at its posture and stance, it looked like he would like to have close-range combat.

Well, why not?

Taking the first move, I charged toward the monster. My movement was fluid like water as the monster cheated for using a ranged attack on me in close combat, not that I would not do the same if I had one.

Dodging the water bullets left and right, or cutting and splitting them into two, I arrived in front of him. As my sword raised in the air, the creature moved to block my sword. Unfortunately for the monster, that was just a feint.

"The real attack is from this side, bastard!"

"KIEEK!!" The monster shrieked.

My kick successfully landed on its side, making it groan in pain for a moment before it regained its balance and retaliated with a swift thrust on its own.

Wooosh—!

The trident's blades were missing me just by an inch from my ear. As it passed through the air beside my ear, the sound of the wind was rung inside my head coolly.

'A chance!'

As I kick the monster to get my momentum to jump backward, the aquatic monster found itself getting pushed while I landed on my feet a few paces behind.

The tip of my sword glimmered a light that traced back to the lower blade. At that moment, my vision and my surroundings seemed to warp and twist.

Suddenly, I found Finrax lunging toward me, its own trident at the ready. But, his movement seemed to be slowed while my speed was still the same or maybe lighter than usual.

I swung my sword in a graceful arc, my sword moving in a blur as I delivered precise strikes. Then the scene warped again, the aquatic monster was standing after my kick earlier and was about to lunge toward me.

As the monster lunged, cut wounds slowly formed in its body and when he reached closer to me, I swung my sword with ease but precise strike into an empty air because the monster's body was already split into two even before the tip of my sword reached it.

When the monster died, so did the rain.

"Haaa… Haaa… Haaa…"

My breaths came out in ragged gasps, my body wracked with shivers as I collapsed to the ground. It felt as if I had just been struck by a thousand volts of electricity, each twitch and tremor sending waves of agony through my limbs.

The cause? Mana depletion. When your mana was completely drained, it was like having the very essence of your being ripped away from you. It was like suffocating on dry land, with every breath a struggle, every movement an ordeal. You were left gasping for air that simply wasn't there, your body betrayed you as it tried to claw back the magic you'd lost. It was an experience that few survive, and even fewer would willingly endure

Not that it would cause you death, at worst you would end up losing consciousness. If you could endure it for a few minutes, you would be free from the torture of losing air.

That was what I did right now. But, it had been harder as time went on. My face started to turn red in color as my lack of breath went on for a long time.

"...yourself too much."

I was about to pass out when a familiar sound rang in my ears, though it was a bit unclear what it was saying.

"...help you…"

As that last voice played in my head. The feel of the air entering my throat made my tears fall down. Thank God I was alive.

"Fuhah…!!"

Gasping, I greedily inhaled and exhaled as if oxygen was the tastiest dish the world had ever tasted.

"You okay?"

Before me was a pair of sneaker shoes magnetized to the ground. When I looked up, it was the plain face and snake-like eyes of Goose.

Standing up, I clapped his shoulder. For some reason, the smirk widened as I felt proud rather than relieve when seeing him come back to life. Goose tilted his head, expressing both curiosity and confusion at the same time.

As to answer his expression, I said

"I knew you'll be fine even if your head got exploded by a TNT."

pαndα`noνɐ1--сoМ Realizing what I had meant, Goose rolled his eyes. "Is it because of your skill again?"

I shrugged, "Who knows? This is very confidential to me. If you want to know, you need to go through a proper procedure."

He snorted, "As if I will do that."

"So, that the dungeon is cleared. Now, tell me about the cure."

This 'Specter' guy was really amazing. Despite doing nothing here except watching, the audacity to say something like that was amazing, really. I wanted to smack him once, or maybe cut off his head, he could restore it back anyway.

Within his Flawless Restoration, just like my Clairvoyance's Pathfinding, he also had a sub-skill called [Delay Restoration]. The effect was just a normal healing or restoring ability, it just that the effect would be delayed by the intended time.

It was also a good job of his to even had the time to cast the skill immediately after I shouted. He could just dodge it as I did, but he was using his skill instead.

The Flawless Restoration could heal or restore–undo anything that had been done, living or object, be it mental, conceptual, emotional, spiritual, mystical, or physical damage, perfectly without mistakes in the process as long the target had not been completely erased.

What a cheat skill, really. I wish I have one like that.

Walking with a sigh, I responded to him, "Yes, yes. I will tell you later, let's get our reward first."

Picking up my sword, I looked at the shining blade that had the reflection of my smiling face. Well, at least I got this guy.

Retro, this S-rank artifact was an amazing artifact I had ever seen, one that I couldn't ever think of creating one like this. The skill this sword had was something like [Causality Reversal], I found out about it when I was imitating the shadow of the unknown dungeon.

The only drawback of this was that it required someone with a huge mana pool to be able to use the skill freely.

'My luck rank should be at A-rank at this point…'

We walked toward where we first came here. Waiting for us there were the rewards for clearing the dungeon.

I didn't have the luxury to check all of the items, so I just stored all of them in my Storage Cube first.

"What will you use the boss' core for?"

The core of a dungeon boss monster was highly demanded by people of high power. It was the material usually used for technological advancement or creating a high-ranked item with the core's attribute.

But, I thought that it would be a waste to use a core for something like that. I had a plan for a question like what would I use it for.

Looking at the sphere of magical energy in my hand, I smirked.

"I will tell you for some money."