Re: Level 100 Farmer

Everyone in the party understood the significance of a B-rank spell, and this, Li had even almost slightly started to forget. The power level of this world was so low that ordinarily, even a C-rank spell was a feat worthy of praise where to Li, it was useless unless it had niche, good effects. 

B-rank was the minimum of what Li considered routinely usable, and here, it was already in the realm of myth. 

Regardless, that just reassured Li more that the lives of this party would be safe so long as he was around. 

"Haha, that's my lad!" said Old Thane as he beat his wooden chest plate armor with a fist. "Casting mythical spells with utter ease. I say without my guidance, he would never have grown like this!"

"Sometimes, I think you take me for granted," said Li. 

He mentally rolled his eyes at Old Thane and continued on seriously: "This should be enough to get us all through. Again, I will allow you all to fight and grow stronger, but if a situation ever becomes too dangerous, then I will intervene," 

Li put his hand in front of the Spiral Door's warped pattern of space. He felt the cold emanating from it. "Now then, this Spiral Door is what is called 'Corrupted'. Means that very likely, there's a dark force within it. The same kind of dark force that led the orcs against Riviera.

However, all of you are near me, so you should not fear any madness from such influence. And though there is a dark force within, it does not mean that the dungeon is any much stronger."

Li knew of dungeons corrupted by eldritch forces. It happened often during the final expansion when the Old Ones were introduced fully. Corruption, however, as he had said, did not change the difficulty of a dungeon much, raising its potential level by 10 at max, potentially.

What made it problematic was that there were more status effects and potentially more annoying enemies to deal with, with eldritch madness being a severe status that dealt massive physical and mental damage, but with the proper preparations, a corrupted dungeon was not much more difficult than its uncorrupted counterpart. 

Of course, eldritch madness was an extremely dangerous status effect regardless, functioning by exposure effect to any eldritch influences, presences, or attacks, with enough accumulated exposure reaching a breaking point that dealt massive damage.

It was not uncommon for higher tier eldritch entities to manage to deal 60% of a player's maximum health in raw, pure damage if they managed to stack the madness to trigger. However, Li's very presence would negate this madness, so there should not be much of an issue navigating this dungeon. 

Li pressed his hand to the spiral spatial distortion, felt resistance, then pushed further, shattering the space as if it was made of glass. The shattered pieces of space colored with the supposed images of the Gigant forestscape behind it broke apart to reveal the true reality: fire.

Fire everywhere. The giant trees of the Gigant were still there, but instead of standing tall with thick, green leaves that covered the heavens, they were wrapped by the destructive embrace of flame. A gush of heated air rushed out, singing the grass outside where Li and the others stood. 

"The living armor will protect you from the heat," said Li. "Come on. No cold feet now."

"Fire! Go! Go!" said Tia with a toothy smile, evidently far more positively disposed to fire than cold. 

Li smiled at her and, taking her hand, took the first steps into the Gigant dungeon. As he did so, the others followed behind, with Zagan taking up the role of a rear guard.

When everyone entered, the shattered space patched back up, sealing them all shut in the dungeon. Now, there was no exiting this place until they found a proper exit point. 

"Gods, the heat," said Mason. "With the air, the heavy air, it is hard to breathe." 

"It is not too bad, brother. Try to breathe through the armor, if I am making any sense," said Mercer.

Li nodded to Mercer. The younger sibling had caught on quick. With their own physical abilities, they would have suffered greatly under this heat. It was the living armor enhancing their very cells that allowed them to survive, and so relying upon it like a ventilator was the best way to function. 

Zagan sniffed the air and his crimson eyes narrowed in recognition. 

Li came to the same conclusion quickly. 

"This is Hellfire," said Li. "Not black Hellfire, thankfully, or else it would be too much for most of you here, but still, far more dangerous than normal flame regardless."

"Demons, then," said Mason, almost in a whisper. He gripped his longsword tightly in both hands. "If it is demons I must strike down, then I will do so gladly. With all my might." 

"Again, do not get ahead of yourself. Living armor is weak to fire, and fire stunts its regeneration. Even a mid-tier demon could make short work of you. And I am here to assess the situation and see if the demons can be rallied to us," said Li. 

"But-," Mason began before Mercer elbowed his shoulder plate with a wooden clack.

"Yes, Seer, I let my zeal overtake me. I have not forgotten your words," said Mason. 

"You lose your papa to demons?" said Tia, looking into Mason's heart. "You are hurting. Seeing demons, hearing demons, makes you hurt." 

"How-yes," said Mason, knowing better than to question Tia's many abilities at this point. 

"I see," said Li. "It is not so much religious fervor that drives you. If it was that, then I would say it would be quite hard for you to see my way. But the Light is what you rely on to seek vengeance against demons.

Unpacking vengeance is difficult, and it will not be done in one conversation. But I say this now: if you let it consume you, muddle your mind, your movements, you will die here."

Mason took in Li's words and then nodded deeply. "Understood, Seer." 

"Good." Li took steps forward, focusing his will into the Gigant. Even if this was a gigantified forest, it was still a forest regardless, and within a forest, Li was at the supreme height of his power. 

With higher connection to his divinity, he could access many of his racial leshen passives even in his human form, and he did so now, sensing the area for enemies. 

"Hm. So there you are." Li pointed a finger to a massive tree trunk just a dozen meters away. Then, by pointing down, he bid growth. 

The flaming treetop doused its fire through sheer vegetative growth, and as vines and branches and leaves exploded outwards from the treetop, they clasped around a demon and slammed it down into the ground.

Because of the sheer size of the Gigant tree, the demon hiding in the treetop fell almost fifty meters and crashed into the forest floor with enough force to leave a crater. The demon itself was fairly sizable. Eight meters in height, though it was crumpled on the floor.

Humanoid in appearance with flesh like molten rock and eyes burning with fire. Obsidian horns jutted from his head. 

"A Musphelite," said Li. "To be expected. Now then-," 

Li snapped his fingers, and vines grew from the forest floor, again dousing any flames with sheer growth. They wrapped around the fire giant and brought its giant frame in front of Li. The giant's head lay limp, the fire in its eyes flickering down, but it was still semi-conscious. 

Almost instinctively, everyone else in the party stepped backwards. A fire giant was a creature of myth. Average level of 40. Higher end Musphelites could reach all the way up to level 90. The party was smart to withdraw, for they would require a coordinated effort to take down even one fire giant. 

Zagan, however, did not move. Instead he stared at the fire demon with close intent, checking for eldritch corruption.

Li did the same. 

"I sense corruption in you," said Li. "I would cure you, but it seems your friends are quite opposed to it."

As if on cue, fire giants began manifesting everywhere, their giant forms materializing in showers of flaming sparks. This was a demonic ability called [Hellfire Transport], and it was only possible if a demon stronger than the basic fire giants, a higher demon, was utilizing it to transport units. 

There was, however, an extremely long cooldown on every unit transported, so these fire giants were basically stranded now. 

Still, they numbered a fairly sizable host. Twenty strong, appearing between tree trunks and trudging forwards. Two of them were armored in volcanic rock and held enormous greatswords capable of shattering small buildings in their hands. 

"Hm." Li looked at the fire giants, and they gazed back with fire in their eyes both in a literal and metaphoric sense. There was only blazing aggression there. "Looks like diplomacy will have to wait a bit. Everyone, ready yourselves to fight."