Syl

Chapter 159: Jinxed

Despite my reassurances, everyone was extremely careful as we retraced our steps. I even joined the vanguard with [Glacial Aura] active, just in case. Interestingly enough, the dungeon had already cleaned up all the mess, and any damage from exploding slime was gone.

We reached the room again without incident and peeked inside. It was mostly empty except for a small fountain and a large ornate door, which indicated that it was the boss's room.

"Look! The boss room is just ahead," Ian exclaimed, his voice filled with excitement and anticipation.

"And a fountain; I'm surprised we're getting a safe zone," Eliza said curiously. "Unless I'm mistaking the layout?"

"No. This does look like a rest area." Jet confirmed as he glared at the water.

"Are you worried it's poisoned?" I asked, pulling out one of my flasks and placing it inside the fountain while absorbing some of the mystery liquid through my arm. From what I could tell, no notifications or anything significant happened.

"Yeah. As stupid as that sounds." Jet said with a sigh. "Dungeon fountains are supposed to be rejuvenating waters. But this dungeon has been anything but ordinary since we reached the second floor."

"Oh! I read about those. They're like weak healing potions, right?" Eliza asked.

Ian gestured for my canteen, so I handed it over to him. He poured some of the contents on some of his wounds and massaged it in with his free hand. As he continued the work, the damaged skin slowly started looking better.

"Too bad this one didn't come with a pink slime, or we could pretty much regrow some limbs with that fountain." Jet pointed out.

"Is this dungeon big enough for that?" I asked curiously.

Jet shook his head. "Regrettably, no. I was just joking. Otherwise, we could have been set for life."

We took some time to collect some of the healing water and rest up while Ian rejuvenated himself.

"So, do you think we should take the boss on now?" Jet asked.

"Kill the boss! Get the loot! Sleep!" Pelopi declared.

"I'm ready and willing," I responded but turned to Eliza. "But your Holy pool is tapped out, isn't it?"

"Yeah... But unless we backtrack to the other passageway and find some monsters to fight, that will not change." Eliza responded. "I can always generate some on the fly, especially if you do your zip-zap step and I siphon your damage. I'm more concerned about Ian."

Ian let out a smirk as he gestured at his now healthy-looking skin. "Oh, I'm good to go. This water has me as smooth as a baby's bottom."

"Okay," Jet said with a nod. "Sounds like we will be attempting the boss then. We know it'll be illusions and whatever the next floor is, so be careful."

"And probably a Fey, or you'll eat your hat," Pelopi added.

"Yes..." Jet frowned before giving a light chuckle. "I might need to buy a hat..."

We made our preparations and were in generally high spirits as we snacked on some of Pelopi's apples and ironed out our opening strategy. No matter what enemy was thrown at us, my job was to harm myself with [Thunder Step] so Eliza could rapidly refill her reserve.

We entered the room and waited... Weapons were drawn, and you could almost sense the held breath as we all anticipated what this menacing floor would finally throw at us.

A black cat appeared in a poof of rainbow smoke and glitter. Then, as the smoke began to disperse, we saw that it was no ordinary black cat. Its fur was black like midnight, and on its chest was a white patch of fur in a starburst pattern. On its back, it had tiny dragonfly wings that glimmered like an iridescent rainbow. On top of its head was an adorably small crown tilted to its side as if worn with a casual demeanor.

As we all stared in bewilderment at the strange creature before us, it also stared back at us as if annoyed it had to deal with us. Its icy blue eyes slowly blinked in an almost reptilian manner, the left eye blinking horizontally while its right eye blinked vertically.

"Ha! It's a Fey! I knew it!" Jet shouted triumphantly.

"No! Why!?" I shouted.

I blinked in bafflement at the strange additions to my [Identify], but my thoughts were interrupted.

"What's wrong, Syl?" Pelopi asked worriedly.

"It's a ghost..." I muttered with disappointment.

"No! Not ghosts!" Pelopi joined in on my frustration.

Before the others could question it, the black cat let out a menacing hiss as it slowly started levitating.

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Right. Despite its weird appearance, this was a boss fight. I triggered [Thunder Step], appearing in the air and casting [Conductive] on the enemy before I needed to unleash the backlashed lightning. I immediately felt physical relief as Eliza siphoned off the damage, and as if we coordinated it, we both unleashed our respective lightning attacks simultaneously. The thunder boomed, and lightning crackled as it coursed through the cat as it screeched in pain. The cat looked almost comical in its outrage as it growled and hissed like a feral beast as it glared at us.

Ian had charged in with his axe, only for it to swing right through the monster, and Pelopi's claw strikes from its exposed flank also phased through the cat.

"Well, shit. I can't hit this damn thing!" Ian shouted right before the cat exploded with a dark miasma of blackish mana.

"Is it trying to kill me in status messages!?" Pelopi shouted in disarray.

"I don't even know what half of these are?" Eliza spoke frantically.

Jet fired an arrow, which soared straight through the cat, but its shadowy counterpart thankfully still landed a blow. I overheard him mutter a complaint, "Ghosts... Honestly... This dungeon..."

I immediately went through my full debuff cycle and various elemental spells to see what worked and what didn't. [Icicle] passed straight through the cat; however, it still seemed to do some harm from the [Frostbite] and [Frost Grasp] components added to it. [Fire Magic] and [Lightning Magic] were definitely my strongest options, as even the powerful [Waterjet] spell seemed to be less effective than I anticipated.

The cat, unfortunately, was not going to just debuff us and call it a day; I wondered if it would start blasting us with spells, but then suddenly, an array of floating weapons began appearing around it, which it seemed to expertly control and either throw at us or swing with practiced precision. I immediately thought of the alicorn prince and his light-based weapons, and I was eager to try [Counter Magic] against it, but there seemed to be no anchor point or spell to latch onto. Very odd.

It kept conjuring magical armaments to fight us, although despite the weapons looking especially deadly, they didn't seem to deal as much damage as one would expect. The hardest part was that the weapons seemed extraordinarily magically guided, and no amount of dodging would end their unrelenting pursuit. My [Arcane Armor] was getting a thorough workout as the armaments crashed against the briefly appearing barrier.

Pelopi's bestial claws likewise seemed to do nothing to the cat, and she resorted to falling back on her magic. She first tried to cast various Nature spells, like a vine or her exploding seed trick, but all passed through the annoying ghost cat. She threw a few muddy [Water Orb] spells before finally settling on [Fire Arrow].

Ian was the most disadvantaged as he could literally do nothing against the cat with actual weapons. His only contribution was taunting it, which appeared to still work, and hopefully, burning it by proximity. He was also moving unnaturally slow, so he clearly failed to resist that affliction.

Eliza's black lightning and occasional dark bolt still retained its usual effectiveness. I'd even argue it was perhaps more influential than my own lightning based on how the cat would try to actively defend against it by trying to dodge or even forming some magical shields to block the spells.

"I can't seem to siphon the damage inflicted by these weapons. They might be cursed or something!" Eliza shouted. "Holy seems to still work, so keep me topped up, Ian and Syl."

"Not like I can do much else against this bloody ghost cat!" Ian shouted.

"I hate it!" Pelopi shouted angrily, right before her [Fire Arrow] spell she was attempting to cast suddenly exploded in her face.

"The hell?" Jet shouted as his crossbow seemed to... Break? The various mechanisms of his device seemed to creak, and the bowstring snapped.

Nearly right after that, one of my [Lightning Bolt] spells became extremely unruly and burst within my grasp; I felt a backlash of mental anguish straight to my core while the violent lightning was stored within [Voltaic Slime]. I had never seen my magic behave like this except when I was attempting to brute-force my spell creations, so it was utterly baffling.

"Is this the [Jinx Aura]?" Eliza questioned.

"Oh bloody hells. That's ridiculous!" Ian shouted, right as his axe seemed to slip out of his hands almost comically.

"I don't suppose you have [Dispel]?" Eliza asked me with concern. "Anything stronger than a poison or disease is beyond my current Holy magic level."

"No? Should I have it?" I questioned before blasting another [Lightning Bolt] at the cat. Successfully this time and juicing it with some of the discharge stored within [Voltaic Slime].

"It's one of the spells from [Arcane Magic]!" Jet answered while pulling out a different crossbow from his magic storage.

"Mine's only level three!" I replied.

"Balls." Jet muttered.

A hammer struck against my [Arcane Armor], finally shattering the barrier, and at the same time, a sword sliced along my arm. Blood leaked from my arm, and I clenched it in pain with my other hand.

"Bloody hell, that hurt..." I grunted as I recast [Arcane Armor].

"These weapons seem to hurt a lot more than normal. Even I'm taking some pain." Ian said angrily.

I then stared at my arm in shock. It hurt. Why? My arm wasn't real; it was slime and anything not striking my core was meaningless.

'So why the hell did that hurt me?' I asked in utter confusion.

Even when I told Alpha to fix the wound, it still was there... Bleeding as if my arm was real, and only when Eliza's Holy magic embraced me, did the wound finally close up. It made no sense; it didn't seem real.

I told my [Sub-Cores] to continue the battle in my place while keeping up my facade, which they seemed to have no problem understanding. Their new level of intelligence, after my latest evolution, still needed to be fully explored, but it appeared they easily understood my intent. Once I confirmed their performance was believable, keeping in line with my usual displayed adventurer power level, I could focus internally on trying to puzzle out this conundrum.

The cat was a Fey, so it was something like Trixie. This was the second floor, so illusions were the theme, and the third floor seemed to be ghosts... The more I puzzled together, the more wrong the situation was. Was this entirely an illusion? But then, why did it feel so real? Illusions surely couldn't actually deal damage?

'Or... Can they?' I questioned and recalled a similar discussion with Trixie about a certain trait I had acquired from the prince. I pulled it up.

Raises spell power by 5% per trait rank.

Spells focused through the horn become more real.>

'More real!' I exclaimed excitedly to myself. 'They are illusions, but the cat must have a trait to make them more real. That's terrifying, I'm glad it didn't just make an illusion dragon to eat us or something.'

As if to confirm my new understanding, the wrongness of the room seemed to become rapidly apparent. The glowing magical weapons started to turn more shadowy and ethereal, proving their falsehood, and if that wasn't enough, I received a sudden prompt.

"It's all fake!" I shouted aloud with glee and noticed that even the bloodstain on my arm vanished with my proclamation.

The cat glared at me with utter abhorrence and loathing.

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