A boss fight, but this was not a boss fight that Cole was worried about, the boss was not even at his level within the Gold rank. But going with the norms, bosses always had a different level of strength in dungeons, or at the very least had skills that were quite dangerous.
The boss roared again, releasing a wave of energy that spread out from its body in a massive dome that was expanding. Cole used [Gravity] to defend against it, but that was not enough as the wave complete turned him to stone, well not completely, just enough that he was a statue stuck in place for a few seconds.
[You Have Been Petrified For 5 Seconds!]
That was annoying, and even more so when the remaining Basilisks rushed at Cole, all of them smashing their bodies, raking their claws and biting at him. Very few o them actually managed to break skin, and the only real damage that was caused came from those of them who utilized blunt force trauma. But since he was stuck in one place, Cole could only do this.
[Sin Eater]
Loud screeches filled the air as the initial salvo of Basilisks that had attacked him all turned to dust just as the duration of the Petrification was up. Cole sucked in a deep breath, expanding his [Gravity] skill as far as his awareness could reach and dragged everything around to his location as if he was a black Hole. Every Basilisks within the vicinity were dragged towards Cole, all 120 of them, and as they were dragged towards Cole, [Sin Eater] was still very much active.
Streams of golden lights rose up into the air as Basilisk after Basilisks was harvested of their energy and stats. Dust filled the air akin to a sand storm as it seemed as if the Saharan desert had ran roughshod through tie entire forest. But the dust was gray, and it carried some still living tissue though it was all from a couple of dead things.
Most of all was the sheer amount of Gold rank Prisms. Cole counted at least 10 of them, and giving the abysmal drop rates of prisms at such a high level, this was a good haul. Cole released all of his current skills, as all that was left in the clearing was him and the boss, he chuckled as he gave a quick glance to the notifications he had received.
[Sin Eater Has Been Used X120! +9678 To Dexterity, +8887 To Intelligence, +9963 To Attunement, +4459 To Soul, +7334 To Charisma, +1023 To Perception +13000 to Energy]
[You Have Slain Stone Forest Basilisk X120 +1.2M Exp! You Have Leveled up To 77! +300 to All Stats! +140 Stat points!]
This was cheating at the highest order, but then again it might not be. Cole had reached the Gold rank with a lot of people hot on his heels. In fact before he had left the 3rd floor for the 5th there were 8 Raen's excluding himself who had all reached the gold rank, Full Circle to say the least, while at least two dozen or more had a stat or two already reaching it.
He was faster due to his ability to absorb stats, but this was an ability all Raens have. He hasn't even been using his as much as he was supposed to, as opposed to others who were not only just using the skill, but were also using prisms to get stat points rather than skills.
Plus because he was an aspirant, his rate of growth was a lot faster than most, and Cole has been pretty lucky in many of his encounters so far. But this was small, after all Bob already told him that the mineral stages, from Bronze all the way to Diamond was just an entry way for the true powers of the universe. He still had a long way to go, and chief among them was making sure he hit diamond rank before level 100.
The fifth floor might help him with that, or at least get him as close as possible. It would be costing more and more points to raise his stats to the next level, and eventually at some point the monsters would be too weak to give him anything other than a paltry amount of stats just as it was on the 3rd floor with the darklings. Cole might need to start relying on prisms now too.
He moved his attention back to the boss again. With none of it's army around it, Cole had a direct line to the beast. It roared at him and started running towards it. Cole pulled out his Spear from his inventory and raised it up, pouring a significant amount of energy in to it as he stabbed it into the ground.
[Root Cascade]
This was just the place to use it as massive roots shot out of the ground to stab into and wrap around the boss. The hide was impenetrable, the spear and the rest of his weapons were all still at the silver rank. Cole hardly if at all ever gets notifications about their leveling up, so he would have to check later.
But as it stands, the weapons would not be enough to cause any sort of significant damage. But in the case of the spear it could at least hold a gold rank in place for a while. The only weapon capable to dishing damage out to Gold ranks was his rifle, affectionately name Gospel. But he wouldn't need it for what comes next.
Cole rushed forwards, and placed his right hand on the struggling head of the basilisk. And without ceremony used [Sin Eater] once again. The lights from the absorption was a lot brighter than the lesser basilisks, but nowhere close to what the Mer-King had let off when Cole had slain him. 2 seconds was all he needed to drain the boss dry as a notification popped up.
[Sin Eater Has Been Used! +2458 To Perception, +1345 To Intelligence. +600 To Energy]
Cole raised an eyebrow at that….. it seems, the skill was no longer as effective against the Basilisks. It happened a lot faster and with a lot less enemies than when he was in the silver rank and hunting silver ranked monsters. He shrugged as the great tree split with a crack as a hole appeared in its trunk with a set of stairs leading down…..looks like the path to the next floor has been opened…..onwards then.