"Well, I''m ready," Ian said excitedly, softly tossing the axe handle between his hands.


    "Remember, retreat is an option." Jet warned. "You have already passed in my books."


    "Thanks, but..." Eliza started replying.


    "We want to kick this dungeon''s butt!" Pelopi roared.


    "Don''t get me wrong, I fully agree." Jet smirked. "I''m just fulfilling my guild staff obligation."


    He pulled out his [Splinterstorm] crossbow and stroked it with a glint in his eyes. "I think we all want some... Revenge."


    Ian pointed to his axe and chuckled. "I don''t know if I''d say revenge, but I want to finish the job."


    "Remember to be on the lookout for illusions..." I warned.


    "The worst part is, thanks to the first floor, it will be a huge mystery..." Eliza sighed. "I''m assuming the boss will just be a big unknown with [Identify]."


    "Yes, which is actually very unfortunate." Jet grumbled. "If we knew what type of ethereal monster it was, it could help, like the difference between a phantom and a shadow."


    "Anything but pheromones again..." Pelopi pleaded as she rubbed her nose uncomfortably.


    "Our usual opener?" I asked Eliza.


    "I''m still pretty topped up on my Holy pool, but I won''t say no to more black lightning," Eliza replied happily.


    "Just please wait till I use [Taunt] first," Ian groaned.


    The Misfits did some last-minute emergency potion distribution, and then everyone finally declared they were fully ready. At the same time, Jet pulled out a black cloak and hood that he draped over himself. I tried to have my [Sub-Cores] memorize any enchantments they saw in the brief moments before it activated, causing his features to become heavily obscured by an oppressive shadowy aura.


    Then... We entered. The room was large and circular, with massive marble pillars reaching the ceiling arranged fairly symmetrically. At the center was a giant magical circle with intricate sigils and embellishing glyphs. It looked majestic as it shone brightly with vivid magical coloring. It was also clearly fake, as [Rune Reading] showed that the entire thing was a bunch of Filigree.


    ''Well... Points for presentation.''


    The boss hadn''t appeared yet, and everyone split up to avoid being clumped up, our ranged combatants taking position safely behind a marble pillar. Finally, Ian approached the center with Pelopi in the wings, ready to pounce.


    The room flickered with magical lights, and the fake magic circle put on a wonderful display. Thunder crackled, and there was a booming, echoey laugh. Transparent barriers enclosed the circle, and then, within the circle, a tremendous eyeball appeared.


    <[Identify] failed.>


    ''Huh...''


    The eyeball rotated and blinked while the room hummed with magical energy. Then, multiple tendrils burst out from the eyeball, each with a different claw, appendage, mouth, or even more eyes.


    ''Ripoff! I already did that in Simon''s dungeon.'' I joked to myself.


    "Oh gods, is that an Eyedra?" Jet muttered.


    "As in... A hydra of eyes?" Eliza asked.


    "Yes." Jet responded. "Although it seems to have replaced its eyes with... Everything."


    Then, the eyeball started to become semi-transparent. The barrier had yet to drop, so we still couldn''t engage it; this dungeon seemingly wanted to ham up the theatrics of this final encounter.


    "And its giant weak point is ethereal now... Great." Jet moaned.


    "I mean, that works for us," I responded, pointing to Eliza and myself.


    "Yes, but Eyedras are innate spellcasters and quite magic-resistant." Jet pointed out.


    "Well, shit." Eliza shrugged.


    Tentacles kept appearing off the eyeball while it glared at us unblinkingly. I started trying to decipher all the various tendril ends. There were claws from a multitude of animal and monster varieties, from crabs to bears to badgers. Then, all forms of mouths and jaws, from shark, canine, and even lamprey. Some tendrils were just grabbers, others ended in a pointy bit, and quite a few ended in another unblinking eyeball. One tendril, in particular, was an eyeball that opened into rows and rows of razor-sharp, jagged teeth.


    "I got some good news and bad news," Jet said while the barrier started to flicker out as if counting down the start of this climactic battle.


    "Please tell me it''s not a giant eyeball; instead, it is something normal, like maybe a golem or drake," Pelopi begged.


    "No... It''s clearly an eyeball, or at least something similarly spherical." Jet chuckled. "But, I think some of its tentacles are fakes; they don''t have proper shadows."


    "That''s something at least," Ian replied.


    I couldn''t confirm or deny Jet''s theory since the magical barrier prevented me from sensing anything related to the eyeball. None of my debuff spells could penetrate the barrier, which was strange because they always seemed to work on anything I could perceive. Needless to say, trying to cast inside the barrier didn''t work either. This strange translucent barrier blocked senses and spells and, from what I could tell, was entirely non-magical itself.


    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    The creature let out an indescribable roar, and the barrier abruptly vanished. My senses could finally pick up the monster for real, and there were quite a few tendrils without any heat signature.


    Ian let out a battle cry as he used [Taunt] and charged forward while immolating.


    I triggered [Thunder Step] to appear behind and far from the eyeball while ordering my [Sub-Cores] to begin their debuff cycle. As each debuff went off, there was a brief flicker of a barrier around the central eye, and messages began to flood my vision.


    <[Hexed] resisted.>


    <[Conductive] resisted.>


    <[Permeable] resisted.>


    <[Flammable] resisted.>


    <[Frigid] resisted.>


    <[Conductive] resisted.>


    <[Permeable] resisted.>


    <[Flammable] resisted.>


    <[Frigid] resisted.>


    <[Hexed] resisted.>


    <[Hexed] resisted.>


    <[Hexed] resisted.>


    I noticed two things relatively quickly from the flood of information. Firstly, it majorly resisted my [Hex] spell, as the [Hexed] debuff failed to stick around. Secondly, it immediately failed to resist [Erode], meaning physical defense was definitely not its strong point. Unfortunately for the stupid eyeball, my [Sub-Cores] were overly diligent workers and would endure and strive to fulfill my order.


    This might not have been even a minor struggle for them if I had made my affliction debuff. Still, seeing them brute-force their way to victory was hilarious as the giant eyeball seemed to widen in stupefaction at the sheer unrelenting excess of spells being endlessly thrown at it.


    Regardless, I fired my combination of [Lightning Bolt] and [Voltaic Slime] at it and watched as one of the tiny eyeballs directly intercepted with a forming [Aegis] spell. While I would have loved to have thrown around more lightning, I figured what I really needed to do was to start trying to trim down on the tentacles with [Waterjet].


    "Syl!" Pelopi shouted while currently brawling with some of the clawed tentacles. "[Frostclaw] me up! But just one!"


    We didn''t start the encounter with them as we weren''t sure if she''d need it. While her claws must have still been sufficient, she had grown fond of the magical ice variety and wanted at least one to cause mayhem with. I set Delta to cast and maintain one [Frostclaw] while I had my other Ice-aligned core, Theta, activate [Glacial Aura].


    When [Frostclaw] was cast, the giant eyeball''s pupil immediately dilated and focused on Pelopi, and I felt a mental tug-of-war had started between Delta and the Eyedra.


    ''Innate spellcaster!'' I recalled Jet''s warning. ''Stupid eyeball, I''ll have you know I was trained by Trixie herself!''


    I jumped in to help Delta and started to overwhelm the attacks against the spell. I longed to finally try out [Counter Magic] and see how I would stack up against an actual enemy, as after Trixie''s training, I had no opportunity to use it.


    Again, the eyeball seemed stupefied by what it was witnessing, and after I slapped its filthy mana hands away from my spell, it soon gave up. Or maybe I was personifying the eyeball too much? Either way, I hoped I showed it who the boss was. I ordered Delta to call for help if the spell came under attack again, as no doubt it would likely throw in some sneak attacks while it thought I was distracted.


    ''Everyone else, be on the lookout for any spells we can attack!'' I ordered.


    With that out of the way, I shifted my alignment to Water and began firing [Waterjet] spells to cut down the number of threats we needed to watch out for. Hopefully, the eyeball didn''t have regeneration or anything, and they would stay trimmed. The eyeball must have hated what I was doing as it sent a handful to directly assault me before I zipped away, thanks to [Thunder Step].


    ''Man, I love this skill. As awesome as magic is, I wonder what I''m missing out on from the non-casters.'' I couldn''t help being curious.


    Eliza was making sure to use marble pillars as cover as she darted around the battlefield and occasionally threw out a variety of blackish blades and piercing spells. Ian was doing his job well and was being assailed by multiple tentacles of all varieties while she was sucking up the damage and trying to dish it back out.


    He was swinging his axe around with reckless abandon and a battle-frenzied grin. Occasionally, his axe would pass straight through an illusioned tentacle, but he took those in stride before swinging again.


    The Eyedra was relatively clever with its usage of intangibility as it would try its best to partially shift a tendril where either Pelopi''s claws or Ian''s axe would swing through. Pelopi would follow up any failed shredding with the [Frostclaw], while Ian would pivot into using the blue blade to rend through any ghostly shenanigans.


    Jet, true to his word, was not holding back. The man was like an undefined shadowy blur of a presence on the battlefield, and if not for the occasional volley of bolts being fired, I would''ve sworn he had left us. From where I saw his bolts land, he tried his best to target the eyestalk tentacles exclusively.


    Speaking of which, those mini-eyeballs were quite nasty and would cast relatively basic low-level spells from a wide variety of magical affinities. No big spells were being cast from them, and while I didn''t know the exact spells of the affinities I didn''t have, I presumed nothing went above second-level spells, as they matched the mana quantity of [Fire Arrow] and [Acid Dart] that was being flung around. It was like each eyeball tentacle was a poor man''s [Sub-Core], and I soon spotted that the color of the iris seemed to determine what spell affinity the tentacle could cast.


    ''Are we seriously fighting a bargain bin version of myself? Just with added illusions and ghostly bullshit instead of all my cool slime traits.''


    I so desperately wished I could throw around some slime right now and assert my dominance over this crude impersonation.


    My cockiness backfired, and I must not have been random enough with my [Thunder Steps] as when I reappeared from my latest jump, the giant eyeball fired a beam of pure arcane energy directly at me.


    I threw up a [Aegis] spell, which shattered nearly instantly, then rapidly started throwing more and more behind one another to stop the arcane deathray. I sadly had no time to see if that was a spell or trait as the eyeball seemed to take my momentary distraction as the perfect chance to strike.


    Hidden eyestalks suddenly appeared with an entirely black iris. They reeked of Death mana, and suddenly, I felt a slow and draining pain in my core.


    ''A low-level [Death Magic] spell?'' I wondered.


    I cast [Arcane Armor] on my core directly, and the constant pain was more than halved. I was grateful they were limited to this basic spell. If they could just rip the life force right out of me, I would''ve been in some serious trouble. Not that I was going to let it slowly siphon me, as I quickly ordered Zeta and Kappa to remove those eyeballs with [Waterjet] while I kept defending myself.


    ''No idea how many spells you can [Multicast], but I''ve got my army of cores on my side!''


    I would''ve loved to have said it was a flawless execution, but the Eyedra wouldn''t let me destroy its Death eyes without some struggle as they began to weave and dodge like slippery snakes.


    My surroundings darkened dramatically, and my shadow spread as if suddenly growing. Abruptly, a vaguely humanoid shape half-emerged and pulled out a crossbow from the shrouded pit.


    "Need a hand?" Jet''s familiar voice asked although it sounded strangely distorted.


    "I mean... If you''re offering," I responded. "I''ve got all eyes on me right now."


    Jet chuckled, although it sounded far from reassuring, thanks to his distorted voice, before firing a volley of bolts with pinpoint accuracy. When the Death eyes tried to be tricky with their evasion, he simply targeted their shadows, which ruptured the eyes into lifeless stumps.


    Between Jet and my two Water cores, soon all the ambushing eyes were dealt with moments before the giant arcane laser finally fizzled out.


    "Strike now while it has to recharge!" Jet''s voice echoed from every shadow within the room.


    Everyone flinched and spouted a variety of curses from sheer shock.


    "I''m glad he''s on our side..." I heard Eliza mutter before all three Misfits burst into action, and I happily joined them; it was time to turn the tables.