The dragon's harem

Through the week Arad spent here, he had seen many monsters and slain countless beasts that he had never seen the likes of before. Probably all of them were pure nightmares, drawn straight from Merlin's worst nightmares.

Animals and monsters were simple and easy to defeat. Monstrosities were hard, horrors left him always near death, and Terrors weren't something he could challenge; all he could do when spotting one was hide, or let the Terror's presence hide his.

Why would he bother fighting those powerful and deadly creatures? Can't he just farm animals and monsters to level up? The answer was simple: this labyrinth system is to blame. Each level required three times the experience of the level before it to clear. 100, then 300, then 900, then 2700, and so on… which resulted in Arad needing too many numbers to bother reading.

The easiest way to level up was slaying powerful creatures like horrors and nightmares, but those things weren't easy to find, let alone survive an encounter with one.

****

{Name: Arad Orion}{Race: Human}{Class: Barbarian}

{Level: 19/20}{Exp: 562,326/12,914,016,300}{Sub-class: Berserker}

{Stats}

{Available stat points: 32}

{Available skill points: 146}

[Strength: 21] [Agility: 18] [Constitution: 21]

[Magic: 21] [Intelligence: 21] [Wisdom: 16]

{HP: 399/399}{MP: 399/399}{SP: 399/399}

{HPreg: 1.00016/min}{MPreg: 1/H}{SPreg: 5/s}

****

Every Horror and Terror was unique and had wildly different abilities, which made fighting them extremely tricky. And with what he learned from his Terror companion and the people living in this Labyrinth, the 0-nightmare, the boss on each tenth floor is the strongest, and gives the most exp.

Arad didn't want to spend his stat points and skills until he determined what kind of boss he would be facing. If he isn't perfectly prepared, only death awaits him on floor 910. And he wasn't willing to spend weeks, if not months, grinding for levels and experience.

When facing the 0-nightmare, every stat point and skill counts. Such a creature wasn't designed to be fought alone, but with a whole squad of several dozen people.

Arad was now standing inside the silver tower linking floor 909 and floor 910. From the door to floor 910, he looked inside and immediately confirmed his fears. The best plan might be to just run past the thing. He unconsciously added in his mind, after Terrors exist nightmares, creatures straight out of Merlin's worst nightmares and fears.

He could see it, perched over a massive black spire of obsidian and fire. A large winged spider with a human head, open demon mouths for joints, and large tongues for legs. Its massive abdomen was akin to a wasp's nest, housing countless smaller versions of itself.

That nightmare stood over ten meters tall, and each of the smaller versions looked to be one meter tall.

The nightmare's eight bloodied eyes all shifted toward the door, glaring straight at Arad's soul. Its abdomen twitched, and a swarm of the lesser kind of it flew through the sky like a flock of birds, all rushing toward Arad in a mad frenzy.

Arad slammed the door shut and climbed down to floor 909, terrified at the sight. "What kind of hellhole did that thing crawl out from?" Arad gasped, and the Terror looked at him, "The goddess made it."

"Merlin made it? When I find her… I'll make sure to check if she is fine up here." He knocked on his head and then sat up, "So… how are we going to kill it?"

"You're asking me?" The Terror looked at him, "I wish I could beat it, but I can't. That thing is stronger than I. I saw its true power, and it's a pain to deal with."

"Explain, we aren't defeating it without a proper plan." Arad still didn't allocate any of his stats for this very reason. After the Terror learns of the nightmare's power, he'll then allocate them to get the best build to face it. Then he'll try to come up with the most reliable attack strategy and leave the rest to luck.

"You'll want to be extremely fast and resistant to fall damage." Her eyes shifted toward him, "That spider nightmare is fast, too fast for its size, and so are those small ones. They'll lift you into the sky and drop you to your death. Poison is also a problem."

"Then let's go to the nearest city. We need to stock up on some potions and antidotes." Arad stood, took a deep breath, and erased the Nightmare's terrifying face from his memory.

As they walked to the city, bought everything they needed, and rested before the fight, Arad spent all of that time thinking about the fight, trying to plan how he would tackle such a massive and horrifying Nightmare. He isn't supposed to face it at level 19, anyone who reaches this floor by climbing the maze normally should be much, much higher level.

There is only one way to win and it's to cheese the boss fight, and Arad must find a way and successfully take the boss down in his first try. There is no second chance.

The Terror looked at him with a worried face. "Are you sure you don't want to take it slow and level up a bit more?"

"The one who made this Labyrinth is up fighting for control. If she loses, this place is doomed, we're doomed. I came here to fight her, but now I have to save her, or at least help." Arad looked at the Terror, "Each second wasted is putting more pressure on her."

"But each second that you rush increases the risk of you never making it up." Her pale eyes stared deep into his soul. Isn't she telling you the same? To avoid the Nightmare until you're strong enough.

Arad could hear Shi's voice, and she agreed with the Terror. The Nightmare isn't something they should be fighting, it shouldn't even be called a fight, but a suicide.

"I might be just a poor little level 19 barbarian, but I'm not just any barbarian." Arad's eyes flashed blue, and mana started swirling around his body. "I'm a magical barbarian. I didn't spend a year studying the secrets of the arcane arts to forget them."

"But what can you do with that drop of mana you have now?" The Terror sighed, "You don't have enough mana to face it."

A large smile crossed Arad's face, "I might have close to no mana… but someone showed me how a little match can burn a whole forest."

"Fine, but if things start going bad, I'll be grabbing you and running away. Try to keep fighting after that, and I'll knock you out." The Terror didn't want him to die here, a part of it is because she doesn't want to find out what will happen when he dies, and a part is because she needs him to get her out of the Labyrinth.