Chapter 7: Another Boss!

Poko ran quicker than a babysitter’s boyfriend when the car pulls up. He got to the nearby river and dives straight in.

After about 20 minutes of only coming up for air he finally leaves the water. Taking a total of 2 damage from the stings.

“This honey ingredient is a trap! Damn you  ingredient knowledge! Never again! How did the bear do it?? Did he pick the right one or maybe they can’t pierce its fur? Well I’m not touching them anymore!!”

Poko slowly went to the shore ready to cast lesser fire, flinching at the sound of buzzing nearby, ready to cast the spell while jumping back in at a moments notice.

Suddenly Poko realized, their were bear prints along the river. And these bear prints were bigger than the other bear. Poko curiously walks in the direction the prints came from while watching the trees and looking for plants.

Unfortunately he lost the trail quickly but keeps walking in the general direction.

About an hour and a half later of carefully walking along Poko finds a giant hill with a gaping hole in the side.

‘That’s definitely it’s home. How should I do this? I can’t exactly block a bear with this crappy shield and if it survives my fire I’m screwed. I should wait outside about a hundred feet away so I can cast lesser fire multiple times.’

After more than an hour of waiting, at around noon, a giant light blue fur bear walks toward the cave from Poko’s left.

‘Look at him sauntering around like he owns the place. Well I guess he probably does but not for long!’

Poko casts lesser fire on the bear, surprisingly it also dies in one hit.

‘… I guess I’m a little strong for this area huh’

Poko walks up and sees a drop! The drop is 25 copper and a blue looking potion, the same size as his health potion.

‘Hmm if red is health then blue must be mana I guess.’

‘If the size of the hill matters, then that hill ahead has to be another boss, Guess I’ll head that way then!’

When Poko got closer to the hill he saw a giant cave a lot bigger and deeper than the other one. And inside that cave lay giant white bear with an old scar going down its right eye.

‘Wow I guess size really does matter, oh Sweet it’s already half blind! Damn that thing is a monster, I’ll definitely need two spells for it.’

Poko didn’t waste anytime and got into a good spot before casting lesser fire on the bear. But right as he started casting the spell, the bear looked right at him and roared.

“RAAAWWRR”

Poko feels cold sweat and suddenly casting gets more than twice as hard. He inevitably falters on his casting and the mana peters out his hand like a small candle.

The bear jumps up, and rushes out of the cave, charging right for him.

‘This bear is insanely quick! That has to be another skill, this is definitely a floor boss.’

Poko tried to cast again and succeedes before the bear could reach him, lighting it on fire.

“RAAWWR”

The bear falters as its hit but still manages to swipe a claw at Poko, sending him flying and doing 36 damage to him.

Poko hits the ground hard about 50ft away, taking 3 more damage and immediately he attempts to cast lesser fire.

Only one problem with that… because of the hit there are now two identical bears next to each other, where should he aim?

Thankfully he can aim at the end of casting, as the bear approaches and poko starts to get his vision back, he successfully casts lesser fire on the bears shoulder, the bear writhes in pain and collapses mere feet from where Poko is laying.

[Congratulations! You have defeated a second Floor Boss!]

‘That was way to close! Damn was that roar a skill? I should have dodged with quick steps instead of casting that first lesser fire.’

The corpse of the bear drops two books with one bronze coin.

[Would you like to learn Skinning Knowledge]

[Would you like to learn Tracking]

“Sure! I’ll learn them both, I can even use the skinning right now.”

Poko stopped for lunch and skinned the giant bear. Just like his other skills, the more he skinned the more his knowledge slowly grew, turning basic theoretical knowledge into practical knowledge.

As Poko was eating he happened to discover something, a delicate blue flower in the cave. The flower was small but it was the only blue flower Poko had seen yet, and his plant Knowledge skill did not activate upon seeing it.

‘Is it like those blue balls? Not a plant but something else?’

Poko slowly finished his meal, which took about an hour and has 11 health, 20 mana.

‘Wish I had more health but it’s just a flower… at least the buzzers only did 2 damage, I’m sure the flower will be fine.’

Poko prepared his spell and health pot while slowly walking into the cave. He was careful to watch every corner and inspect everything for a trap. In doing so Poko discovered an opening in the back of the cave.

He first decided to deal with the flower, everything seemed normal the more he looked at it. In fact an interesting thing happened while he was inspecting it from a distance, his plant knowledge skill started to activate and store every new thing he noticed.

‘Hmm that’s odd, maybe the skill just didn’t have info on this flower yet.’

Poko walks up to it, still being careful, and starts touching it until eventually he decides to pick it.

[Congratulations! Your Plant Knowledge skill has been upgraded to Plant Knowledge I. + 1 AP]

‘Oh cool so it wasn’t a high enough level? I should try to upgrade my other skills too since it gives me AP! I’ll put this point into mana.’

Now that Poko’s skill upgraded he could tell what the flower was used for, mana potions. Unfortunately now that it had been harvested it was going to lose its efficacy in about 2 days.

‘Well that’s unfortunate, it’s basically useless. Well it looks beautiful I guess and it might be able to be traded. Wait I leveled up from inspecting the flower so if I bring it to people can they level up too? I guess I’ll try.’

Poko started inspecting the cave entrance and saw it go down much deeper. He first found some branches and lit one with his spell.