Chapter Seventy-Nine

As the group stood between the three bone corpses surrounding them, they each turned to each other and laughed.

"We've become much stronger," Leila smiled.

"On to the third floor!" Brandon cheered. Edward turned to look at his brother and sighed. Then, without even needing to convene a vote for it, everybody moved toward the large door on the other side of the room. Just as in the previous boss room, Edward saw a broken lock scattered across the ground just before the door. 

As Markus opened the door, Edward looked at Brandon with a playful smile, "So Brandon, when do you think you'll be able to do damage like the rest of us? I'm not complaining or anything, but I am curious."

"I've considered looking for a skill on the forums that would turn my Luck stat into damage, but until then I'll just have to rely on using my Luck stat to debuff our enemies. At the moment, my agility and power are still the deciding factors, but they're too low," Brandon sighed.

Edward laughed before putting his hand on Brandon's shoulder.

"Don't worry, you're still a major help. Without you, we wouldn't have been able to go through this dungeon as fast," Edward smiled. He tapped his chest, "We wouldn't have been able to get these sweet drops without you, either."

"Thanks, Edward," Brandon smiled as he turned back to the hallway in front of him. He then pulled out his map and began to direct the group through the third floor. 

Much like the two floors above it, the third floor was just a basic maze-like castle. The chandeliers above held even fewer candles than before, which forced the group to rely on Leila's flame from above. It took them five minutes to find their first group of enemies. When they did so, Edward told the group to hide a little further away so he could get close enough to examine them in silence.

As he stepped closer, Edward finally got his first good look at his new foes. His first impression was that they were tall and beefy. Their bones were formed in a way that implied these creatures were monsters of pure muscle, which worried Edward as soon as he saw them. They were walking on all fours, but their posture told Edward each of them was capable of walking on just their hind legs, as they hardly used their front legs to walk. At first, Edward thought he was facing a group of Neanderthals. He was surprised none of them carried clubs or large rocks, so he decided to use his appraisal to glean more on their identities. As he appraised them the origin behind their identities, as well as why they were walking with their strange posture, became clear.

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Frozen Skeleton Gorilla

Lvl 12

HP: 400 | DMG: 57 | DEF: 92 

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︽

Frozen Skeleton Gorilla

Lvl 12

HP: 375 | DMG: 62 | DEF: 87 

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︽

Frozen Skeleton Gorilla

Lvl 12

HP: 350 | DMG: 67 | DEF: 82 

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'So they're gorillas! Without all of that fleshy muscle, it was kind of hard to tell,' Edward thought to himself. As he looked at their stats, he became worried. Each gorilla had a ton of health, as he would've expected from beefy creatures like gorillas, but he was also surprised when he saw them capable of a decently low amount of damage. Ordinarily, the Damage stat would be a little bit higher. Perhaps they were fast, like the velociraptors?

Luckily, there were only three of them. However, as Edward looked closer at their bodies, he noticed a blue shimmer hovering around the ice on their fists. A dreadful feeling arose in his chest as he realized what that meant.

'These guys can do physical and magical damage at the same time,' Edward shuddered, 'No wonder their Damage stat feels kind of low, they have a few points in Wisdom, as well! I would bet they're as fast as us, but I'm pretty sure they'd still manage to deal damage if they hit us with magical attacks, regardless of our armor.'

Edward returned to the group and relayed his findings. Initially, everyone else was surprised when they learned of the monsters' abilities to use magic alongside their physical attacks, but Markus soon pointed out an obvious truth.

"With such high health, I don't think they'd be able to do that much damage, anyways. We should assume that no more than half of their damage stat comes from their magic, so we'll only take around thirty damage with each hit, anyways," Markus reasoned, "Our main concern shouldn't be their damage, but rather their health."

"We do more than enough damage for us to not worry about that," Edward told him, "But you're right. We shouldn't be expecting them to do that much damage to us. Are you guys ready?"

—

As the group approached the three skeleton gorillas, Markus quickly announced the beginning of the battle with his [Perfect Provoke] skill. A red glow surrounded his body as the three gorillas turned in Markus's direction. The blue glow in their eye sockets turned into a red shine, thus signifying the skill's success.

The three gorillas charged forward and expressed their speed in doing so. Edward was glad to find them to be about as fast as Edward's speed, which meant both Leila and Ikarus would be capable of outmatching them.

The biggest gorilla was the one to attack first. Markus took his attack head-on and braced himself. However, as soon as the gorilla's fist reached Markus's shoulder, he was surprised to find himself only pushed back by a few inches. As quickly as he could, Markus checked the notification from the recent attack, hoping to see how the gorillas would effect his HP pool. A moment of silence passed as the group awaited his findings. 

Edward took a moment to inspect Markus's HP, as well but was quickly shocked by the result.

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10 Damage Received! Your armor has negated some of the resulting Ice Damage!

-9 HP

HP: 768/777

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"Good news, guys! They only do ten damage to me!" Markus cheered. He looked back at the gorillas as a green glow appeared on his shoulder, healing him back to full. Within moments, the gorilla's attack had been undone. A cruel smile appeared on Markus's face as his green and red glowing fist carved its way into the gorilla's chest, "Go wild!"