(52) A Civilised Gathering?

That night, two stone letters were delivered to the dungeon, the contents were both the same:

"Boss Kraton/Lysine, congratulations on becoming Level 30. You have now been acknowledged as an Intermediate Boss.

Please arrive at the Hell's Dungeon at 21.00 on the 2nd of the first month in order to meet other Bosses of the same and higher level. Some 'Great Monster Leaders' may also be present and will be looking for half-disciples. Attending this gathering will increase your chance of recognition.

As monsters, we are not uncivilised creatures that the players think we are, we aim to promote partnership and community between Bosses."

For any unintelligent monster, as well as those who are yet to reach a high enough level, they would just scoff at the idea of community. The simple natural instinct of monsters was 'Strong eat weak'.

But when most, if not all monsters reached level 30, they would understand that an elephant would still be afraid of ants when they work together.

After reading the letter, Kraton and Lysine were found celebrating on the Fourth Floor with the Nagas. Because the First Floor became the floor for wandering monsters, everyone was moved down a floor, this even included the Giant Spiders.

"So, who do you want to catch the attention of?" Lysine asked Kraton during the celebration.

"Um.. I don't really care, if I don't like them, then I won't talk to them."

Kraton expected Lysine to scold him, yet efter a short while she still hadn't responded. She stood deep in thought and only came back to reality when Kraton waved his giant hand in front of her.

Lysine didn't know who she wanted to catch the attention of, or even if she wanted to. Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing not to stick out too much. In the end, she resolved to think the way Kraton thought and just follow the flow when the time arrived.

With a month and a half until the second of the First Month, it gave the two Bosses little to no time to improve even more. They would only be able to increase their level by a maximum of two in this short period.

Compared to other Bosses who would be showing up at the Gathering, they were probably one of the lowest levelled Bosses.

This was because quite a high number of Bosses played it smart, and only became level 30 on the 2nd or 3rd of the First Month.

This gave those Bosses a whole extra year to level up, possibly by 11 or 12 levels if they were geniuses.

The mentality of this was simple; higher level = more recognition by the Great Monster Leaders. Furthermore, they could boast about their own level to the fellow monsters at the Gathering, forming a small hierarchy and forcing others to submit to them and stay hidden; giving even more of the limelight to them.

Luckily, some of the Monster Leaders didn't purely think about their current level. This was hinted at in the letter as both 'partnership' and 'community' was specified, not just 'partnership'.

In fact, if any other Monster was to look more thoroughly into Lyine's and Kraton's levelling history, they would be very shocked and awed at what they found. Thei levelling rate was astonishing, rivalling that of even one of the sub-legendary figures in the monster community.

Within seven months, the two of them had been raised by 10/11 levels. They were now only two levels behind Kim and Psychi. It was common knowledge that more experience is required to level up to the next level.

To earn more experience, one would have to kill higher level opponents, but this was often a problem with Dungeons. Because the dungeon rating was set by the human Appraisers, most players would follow the rating.

But since the Dungeon wasn't rated each month, even if the Boss or dungeon monsters progressed, the level of the human players may not change for some time.

This often led to a stagnation of growth if the Bosses levelled too fast and had to wait for the rating to change again.

The Dungeon Ophid Crypt was lucky. At first, it was the monsters in the other floors of the dungeon which held the Dungeon's level rating down. However, the Nagas and the Gargoyles had suprised many humans by improving rapidly.

Furthermore, due to the almost flawless record of the Bosses every month, many humans requested for Appraisers to rate the dungeon monthly. Each month, the whole town would be suprised at yet another large leap in the Dungeon's difficulty.

At this current moment, the Dungeon rating was firmly assessed to be level 29, 5-star. After looking at the statistics of the monster levels on each floor, the rating would honestly look like and over-exaggeration to foreign players and outsiders.

Nevertheless, no-one in the Florid Boulevard complained as the difficulty of the dungeon was actually on par with higher-levelled dungeons. The teamwork between every monster in the dungeon was impeccable, even the Giant Spiders had learnt how to hide their silky nets in the darkness.

Ophid Crypt had broken many of the player's beliefs and records: it was one of the fastest growing dungeons; had an almost flawless Boss challenge rate; and was the first dungeon in ages for the level-rating to be also the Bosses' level. Well, not anymore.

All of this would give a large impression of them to the Great Monster Leaders if they saw this, but if they were also a higher level, it may even attract the attention of the High-Rankers in the Monster Hierarchy.

Alas, this was not the case. In a month's time, the two of them would most likely be picked on. However, Kraton nor Lysine planned to submit to others.

During the last seven months, the two of them had done intense research, experimentation and investigation into skills that they could learn. The two of them had learnt two additional skills on top of the two base skills learnt at level 21 and 25.

Kraton's skills now looked like this:

[Level 6] Basic attack

[Level 11] Harden

[Level 21] Power Boost - gives user explosive power for a single normal attack or a whole skill. 60 seconds cooldown

[Level 25] [Passive] Multitasking + Ambidexterity

Analysis: Stage 2/3

Conceal

Hide + [Passive] Silence

Explosive Leap - allows the user to leap with tremendous force up to three-fold of what the user could normally do. 20 seconds cooldown.

Physical Pummel: Stage 1/2 - gives energy to the user's arms and similar limbs, allowing them to attack at a rapid pace. Once the attack pauses, the skill ends. Consumes energy/stamina. 120 seconds cooldown.

Kraton's Analysis skill had also increased to Stage 2, this was the result of his arduous effort in studying, otherwise it would have remained stagnant for some time.

The skills that he learnt complimented each other extremely well. For example; if he were to activate the silent buff, he could then use Explosive Leap without alerting the opponent from the loud noise it normally produces.

Physical Pummel would work well with Power Boost as it would enhance all of the rapid attacks in the skill. Kraton had researched many attacking skills beforehand, but Physical Pummel stood out to him because of the second stage.

The second stage was basically the same as an advancement of the skill, when it is stage 2/2, the skill would create an illusion. The illusion would confuse the opponent with numerous ghost attacks, as well as making the actual attacks look magnified.

All of this, however was just an intagible illusion, it didn't actually affect the power that much, that's why it wasn't a skill advancement, but second stage of it.

Lysine, on the other hand, had learnt two Passive skills, whilst her two Base Skills weren't directly offensive.

The four skills were as followed:

Poison Veil [21] - exclusive skill for monsters that naturally wield poison or venom. The skill coats the user, or their weapons (depending on mastery) with a layer of their poison. Can be used defensively or offensively.

Charm [25] - Makes the opponent sluggish, causes wild thoughts to pop up in their mind, causing mental disturbance.

[Passive] Blade Mastery 1/5 - Blades seem to feel like extensions of the user's limbs. Any other blade-related skills may seem easier to learn.

[Passive] Acute Senses - Senses are enhanced greatly; can hear electrical impulses (hearbeats, nerves, etc), movement, breathing, etc. Depending on concentration and mastery, certain skills may be negated.

Althoug Lysine's skills seemed a bit mismatched, they could all eventually grow to become powerful counters in the future.

With the new Ascension, Lysine had grown venomous glands, now the skill Poison Veil could be used with a larger potential instead of forming poison out of nowhere which had needed mana before.

Poison veil could help corrode or paralyse the defensive, but slow Knights. Charm could help disrupt formations and Acute Sense could detect the Rogue classes.

Moreover, Blade Mastery had 5 stages, as well as making it easier to learn blade-related skills. In time, Lysine may become a very powerful monster with various offensive blade-skills.

Hopefully, with all these skills, the two of them could defend themselves from the tyrants in the gathering, furthermore they knew two other Bosses that would be present, who would go through the trouble to offend four Bosses, especially when one is a Moon Immortal.

"YAAAWN!" Kraton was exhausted, even after the last several months of hard work, he was still dragged around and was commanded to be a punchba- *uhm* a traning partner for the Nagas.

With the constant training and help from the two Bosses, the Nagas had solidified their foundations and had beaten players after players mercilessly. Most Nagas had reached level 27, a two level difference between the Boss and the lowest floor Monsters was a healthy difference for them and the Dungeon.

Having said that, Kraton felt that it wasn't healthy for himself. With little level suppression, and the Nagas amazing coordination, Kraton was finding it harder and harder to survive the training sessions.

Luckily, he wasn't the only one to experience the pain, yet unlike him, Lysine seemed happy and satisfied each evening. For Lysine, the Nagas were her family, seeing them improve so well was something to be proud of.

Additionally, the training was beneficial to the two Bosses as well. If the past Kraton and Lysine were to fight against the current Nagas, they would be completely overwhelmed; even if they were on equal or higher levels!

The battle experience, techniques and strategies helped develop their natural awareness of flaws and counters. They could now percieve the weakpoints of a group and target it in a way to collapse the whole structure of the formation.

It was like a balloon. If you punch a balloon in the air, no matter how hard you punch, nor at what place or angle, it would be impossible to pop it with that one punch.

There were two common solutions to this problem: The first is adding another punch from the opposite direction. This was the same as adding another Boss, after all, a formation may not be able to defend against two Bosses the same way it would defend against one.

The second solution was to attack a small point. Instead of punching a wide area, attack like a pin, a single point. Once the pin broke through the balloon's defence, the balloon would pop. So, instead of attacking a wall of shields, you could take down one player, and sneak in through that gap, destroying the formation from within.

The training that evening had been extremely intense and exhausting. Kraton laid on the floor, his aching muscles throbbed as his heart was still beating fast.

The curious Nagas kept bothering him despite his exhausted state, but he could only sigh and surrender to the ocean of questions.

His level 30 Awakening had quite obviously changed him, his appearance, strength and mentality were adjusted and the Nagas wanted to know how it felt during the process and how the changes to their physique feels now.

After all, the Nagas were nearing level 30 themselves as well.