Mind Demon's Path of Domination

Mark stood still. He could feel cold sweat ooze down his back.

There was a way a Demon’s strength could approximately be calculated. It was by its size. This Demon filled the entirety of the Laboratory Dungeon’s basement. It was so big, it must have been... bigger than a bus.

Just the sight was enough to send chills down his back. Not to mention, that unknown woman inside the ice also made him nervous. And more than anything, he was trapped inside here in a barrier, an ability of the Vine Demon below.

There was no escape.

The vines writhed in the basement. Shrivel, then grow. Shrivel, then grow. Like a heart, the vines began to fill in even more of the space in the basement. He could feel Dona’s feeble presence behind him, too.

What was this weird Dungeon?

He hadn’t even found the Dungeon Demon who had created the Dungeon yet.

Thump. Thump.

[Vine Spirit]

[Tier 1—Lower Demon]

[Physique: 100/100 (Pinnacle)]

[Mind: 100/100 (Pinnacle)]

[Demonic Tricks (T1): Soul Devouring, Vine Storage. Vine Manipulation (Pinnacle), Parasite (Pinnacle), Sap of Sleepiness (Pinnacle), Barrier of Non-Escape (Pinnacle)]

[Cultivated Powers: Soul Sense (100 Meters), Defensive Magic Skin (Tier 1)]

[Resistances: Plant Poison Resistance (Low)(T2), Physical Resistance (Pinnacle) (T1), Mental Resistance (Pinnacle) (T1)]

Mark felt his heart calm down a lot.

This was the first Lower Demon he had ever seen with five demonic tricks instead of four. Had it used a Seal of Destiny to steal an ability from someone else?

This Demon was gigantic, true, but it was still Tier 1. It was probably one of the strongest Lower Demons, but it wasn’t impossible to deal with like a Tier 2 Demon.

It’s not impossible.

And now, it also made sense how the warrior-like Demon had vanished to be replaced by this freak. This Demon had the demonic trick of becoming a Parasite over other Demons; by doing that, it could heal its own injuries.

It had killed the other demon in the basement earlier.

Mark felt a headache as he stood there. Now, his and the enemy’s soul senses were having a clash midair in silence. And no wonder there were so many vines in the basement—Vine Storage ability would allow the demon to store a lot of vines inside itself.

Those vines were nothing perfect; it was sharp, but they probably couldn’t hurt him. But the Vine Manipulation ability made it a different case. That gave the vines poisonous attributes and also a completely deadly snake-like movement tactic.

Once it broke through his Defensive Magic Skin, every hit from that vine would be deadly.

Just as he was rigidly waiting for the creature to make its first move, the floor of the lab quaked, and hundreds of snake-like vines broke out of the flooring. Mark pushed Dona to the side and jumped.

A whip of poisonous vines missed them by a little distance.

Heart Input!

Whisper.

Dona, use your Fire Seal on the vines around!

He also threw her the small bag full of black water. She could use it to heal her exhausting Mindpower.

As long as she touched the vines for thirty seconds, a Fire Seal would be placed on the enemy, and then the fire would burn the enemy from inside. That was their only way of dealing with this pesky creature.

Heart Input and Dream Shock wouldn’t work against it anyway!

Vine Manipulation!

Another whip of poisonous vines flashed toward them, and Mark used his wings to defend. He grimaced in pain. Immediately, a sense of lightheadedness spread throughout him, but he held the shock at bay.

"The main body is in the basement. I’ll go kill it face to face!"

There must be an easier-to-deal-with part of this demon inside the vines. The basement’s gigantic form had an armor of black vines surrounding it. He might be able to find the original demon amidst it all. Some kind of core.

Many vines also attacked Dona, but a dome of fire currently surrounded her. She had even been attempting to protect him, but they were not that close.

Fire Shield!

Since the vines didn’t have fire Resistance, they burned off as they touched her Fire Shielf. As long as her Mindpower lasted, she wouldn’t be affected by this power. She had more than five bottles of black water.

Snatching one bottle of black water from the bag, Mark whizzed through the air, dodging the multiple vines thrown at him with uncanny moves. He exchanged a tense glance with Dona before he headed into the basement.

The moment he was inside, he was met with the true size of the Vine Demon.

Screech!!!!!

An unholy screech echoed across the horizon. This was almost as if he had gone back to the moment when he met the Colossal Giant. But this one was much, much weaker. Much, much, smaller. Yet, it must have still been about 20 meters in size.

The massive basement was full of its form.

Mark felt tiny before it.

He focused right on its armor and flew toward it at his maximum speed. He had never flown like this. Never had air felt like he was tearing it apart. Everything felt slow other than him. A slow vine moved towards him, but he rotated his body and avoided it.

Using the momentum, he fell downwards and then flew right back towards it before he reached face-to-face with it. Clenching his hand, the air itself popped as he landed a powerful fist on its armor-like vine body.

Crack.

The exoskeleton broke, and Mark wanted to hit more, but just then, a green puss exploded out of its armor and headed toward him. Mark’s face changed, and he jumped away.

Demonic Trick—Sap of Sleepiness!

Mark looked at it coldly and, more than ever, regretted not having a decent demonic trick. Dream Shock, Heart Input. All of these came under the banner of Mental Resistance. He must get something that was not easy to Resist with both Mental and Physical Resistance.

Just as he was distracted, he felt something around his wings, and his heart thumped. A vine had wrapped around his left wing!

If it drags me down, I am over...

Just before he could be dragged down, a fireball blitzed into that space, and even though much of his feathers were singed, all of the vines got burned, too. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Mark immediately looked back. It was Dona. She had followed him down when the Vine Demon was distracted by him. She was holding onto a vine and looking at him anxiously. She was using the Fire Seal, but when she noticed him in danger, she couldn’t help but make a move.

Now, she had to do it for 30 seconds all over again!

Her hand is green... she is being poisoned. Her Mind Power is also not enough to use Fire Seal anymore.

She needed ’10’ points to use Fire Seal.

[Mind: 1/11]

She had lost 1 point for the Fireball and 9 for a failed Fire Seal.

Mark roared in anger.

Dona smashed the top of a bottle and drank all of the black water in one gulp. She was energized again, and the poisoning vanished. Mark’s eyes widened. Indeed. Poisoning was also taken care of by the water.

[Mind: 11/11]

"Dona, just keep doing that!"

She had three more bottles. He could kill the Demon if he distracted the Vine Demon until she touched the Demon for 30 seconds.

He had three chances. Three bottles of black water. If all three bottles ended and she still couldn’t plant the Fire Seal, he was going to die.

Nobody was going to save him. He would have to save himself.

He took all the poisonous vines except for the one in Dona’s hand into his hand by flying around the basement. His hand felt numb. The poison was rushing into him crazily.

But the Demon... it was completely distracted from Dona.

"Come, kill me if you can, fucking vine!" Mark flew around the giant with its own huge set of vines, and it circled around with its huge vine-hand to catch him. He dodged. Dodged. And dodged.

13 more seconds.

But now, Mark was calm. He slowly landed on the ground with a completely green face.

The poison had entered him. A bit more, and he’d die.

Snatching a bottle of black water, he droned it as he calmly looked at the giant demon.

ITS OWN VINES TIED IT UP!

Everything was tangled up, and it couldn’t move at all.

Mark laughed.

5 seconds.

3 seconds.

1 second.

Fire Seal, planted.

Face regaining some color, Mark patted Dona’s hair. "Dona, don’t kill it. Let’s watch it as it exhausts its Mindpower, then we will... capture it."

He quite liked its powers. Now, it shall be used as the catalyst to turn Seo Ran Hun, Mark’s Puppet, into a Hunter. Soon enough, the Mindpower of the creature was exhausted as expected, and the vines started to fall and wilt on the ground.

Mark looked into the middle of the vines; a small green centipede struggled to escape off of its own vines as it crawled out of the viney body.

Mark grinned.

Now, its Mindpower to perform demonic tricks was exhausted, and it was just something he could bully. Anytime he wanted, Dona would turn on her Fire Seal, and it would burn from the inside.

I win.

His gaze finally moved towards a distant wall. Inside it, a woman as fair as a goddess of beauty was silently frozen. Hair as white as snow, body as lithe as a statue. Curves so exquisite. She seemed frozen in time.

There was no longer a reaction from the violet mirror within him either.

The Barrier of No-Return demonic trick that the centipede had cast had vanished. Mark could leave any time now, but he just stared at the woman.

What was this weird Dungeon, after all?

He’d regret it if he didn’t try to learn.