Chapter 38

Boss Monster

The Chicago Dungeon Gate showed the following information.

-Dungeon Information

Level: A

Maximum number of entrants: 15

Clear conditions: Eliminate the Boss Monster on the Last Floor of the Castle

Time remaining to evolve: 102 days, 3 hours, 22 minutes

Status: Steady

The system message did not explain what the boss monster was capable of or looked like. When one would meet with a boss monster, it didn’t even kindly tell him or her, ‘That’s the boss monster.‘ It just notified them that the dungeon had been cleared once they had ended it.

‘Experienced hunters are confident that they can tell the boss with their own eyes.’

It was usually the boss who was waiting alone in a vast room, having to be very large, or some ability that no other monsters had, or something that looked very bizarre, or on the contrary too normal, or of an unknown species.

‘But when experience and age accumulate mediocrely, it becomes a poison that hinders judgment.’

That was the knowledge of the elite hunters of this era.

Since some time had passed since the Cataclysm, they were confident that they knew the Dungeon ecology well. Still, the knowledge that humankind had acquired now was only a first-aid procedure on a bleeding wound, relatively or absolutely.

For example…I was now in front of the last room of the dungeon. However, the expedition team that had attacked the site in my previous life would never have imagined that to be the boss room.

‘The system explained that the boss was on the last floor.’

I was definitely at the bottom of the dungeon at this moment.

However, the Dungeon explorers’ analysis, especially by Emily’s B-level clairvoyance, would have differed. There was a bigger room beyond this room from her eyes, and most of all, there seemed to be the next floor underground.

It was all fake.

That was an area that Hunter could not enter in the first place, and it was not part of the dungeon. That meant that the last floor of the dungeon was right here.

There was a lock on the door. It was not easy to get in from the perspective of other hunters, even if it was not even the last room. In dungeons, these areas were usually called the ‘treasure rooms.’

Woong!

I made a key with various Mana patterns and stuck it in the door.

Creek!

The door opened with an eerie sound. In front of me was a room similar to what I had seen a few hours ago.

‘Oh… Is this?’

The sword murmured as if it found this strange. The room’s scenery was too similar to the room where it had been locked up for many years.

As same as then, there was nothing in the room except one pile of bone and a sword that penetrated its chest. Even the structure of the inner wall was entirely identical.

As soon as I opened the door, I heard telepathy as if it had waited for me.

‘Oh, I’ve been waiting for you! I can’t believe you woke me up. An adventurer from another world! You’ve already got your hands on [Devil Slayer], haven’t you?’

It wasn’t the sword that was whispering in my mind.

Considering the direction, another sword in that room was thought to be the source of the telepathy. At this point, the expedition of their previous life must have had this thought from their point of view, especially when they had a clear memory of getting the sword that way.

‘There’s another item like the Devil Slayer! In this dungeon!’

Furthermore, Emily would have confirmed that there were no traps in this room, that it was just a room.

Well, that was what it might seem to her. The sword spoke as if it found this all odd.

‘I don’t know how it knows me.’

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Of course, it didn’t know what that was. The sword wasn’t born in this dungeon. It was just swept away when parts of the other dimension were recombined and sealed in this middle dimension.

When the expedition team in my previous life encountered that thing, the sword was in possession by Kevin McKid. No matter how he may be, he couldn’t hold two similar artifacts. In other words, ‘that sword’ would go to one of the other explorers besides McKid. This was a treasure house, anyway. Confident that they had to pass through it to get to the next room, they would have entered the room to identify the artifact’s true nature.

‘You can use the sword and me to deal with the boss downstairs. Please, if you would accept, I’ll be…’

However, I didn’t have to.

Even before the telepathy had entered my head at the speed of light, I threw what I had in my hand into the room!

Swish!

‘Oh, no. What is this? Wait a minute. Listen…!’

It shouted in dismay.

On a thick bundle of Mana cores flying in mid-air, an Iponia crystal was attached to it.

And then…

Woooooong!

This was a room that wouldn’t open the door again once you entered until you cleared it.

This was the unbreakable construction of a dungeon playing by its own rules. However, I didn’t go in yet.

Thump!

In an instant, by combining the Mana patterns, the door was closed again without stepping into the room. When the skeleton and sword disappeared from my sight, the sword murmured.

‘Whoever your opponent might be, you don’t listen to others until the end, do you?’

At that moment…

Boo-boo-boo-boom!

Vibration and blast sound was faintly transmitted over the door. It was the sound of the Mana core exploding with ‘Deep-Sea Swimming’ sweeping the inside.

I opened the door again once the noise stopped.

“Squeaaaal!

The scenery in the room was completely different from what I had just seen.

The familiar bricks that I saw throughout the exploration of the dungeon were nowhere to be found. Sword and skeleton also disappeared.

In the first place, the sword lured its prey like the tentacle of an angler fish.

If Emily checked it with Penetration, she would not find any traps because they were hidden like the wall’s bricks when, in fact, they weren’t even the wall. One had to use a different skill than Penetration to find that.

“Squeal!”

The smell of burning flesh and the disgusting smell of rotting organic matter mixed in and stung my nose.

In the room where the hexagonal shape collapsed, dark red mud was waving. They surrounded the outer walls of the castle and resisted the hunters’ entry. Slimy things that appeared to be a mixture of mud, flesh, and intestines covered the whole room and twisted themselves in agony.

The dungeon’s boss monster was the last room itself.

Rip!

Tubes protrude from all parts of the burned and torn flesh and shoot acidic solutions in all directions. I would have been in trouble if I were attacked in the room.

But still, I blasted the sword movements from the outside without stepping a foot in the room.

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Swish!

The rain of the sword blasts, amplified by the magic sword, stabbed everywhere. Depending on the monster’s thickness, some flew like a spear, and some flew like a contrail, burning the monster and piercing it. All the strands of the sword blasts attacked perfectly under my control.

The best thing about the function of sword blast amplification was the Mana consumption was drastically reduced. I was able to launch an attack that would have been overwhelming, no matter how many cores I had managed to absorb.

“Squeaal!”

The pile of flesh, which had already been fatally damaged when the core exploded, was helplessly cut off whenever the sword blasts passed through it.

As the pile of flesh decreased, the interior space became wider. The dark red organic material, hanging around the wall, disappeared, and the stone that was initially making up this dungeon began to be revealed.

As the blue flame from my sword sprayed and burned to the last piece, the system message rang out as if the firecrackers were ringing in celebration.

-You’ve met the clear conditions of the dungeon!

-Clear condition: Eliminate the Boss Monster on the last floor of the castle

-The boundaries of the dungeon are weakened.

And there was even a message that the maze-type dungeon uniquely had, which was not heard in other dungeons, as I completed the clear.

-All traps in the castle

Hunters who entered the castle must only move in one direction according to the system’s prescribed path unless they use the same anomaly as mine. The restriction was now gone.

In other words…

‘Now even McKid’s companions are free to move around the castle!’

They had just heard the message of completing the clear.

I was sure they would have figured out what the situation was. It would have occurred to them to be reminded of Dell Parker, who had disappeared underground and whose death wasn’t confirmed.

‘I’ve got to hurry.‘

-The user’s contribution to the attack is 1st (89% contribution).

With a flash, the key to the dungeon appeared in front of me. Next was…

‘This is the moment I’ve been waiting for!’

-Additional rewards are available that correspond to your contribution. Do you want to accept it?

I nodded vigorously.

*

Familiar darkness gathered around me, causing my heart to pound.

White ore bodies were scattered like a mosaic. I looked at every one of them. It was time to choose the additional reward.

‘That’s the most amount of things I’ve ever seen!’

Until now, when exploring the dungeon alone, B-Class was the highest dungeon at best, and it was my first time to choose additional compensation for an A-Class dungeon.

Then…

‘It’s probably the first time that one person has contributed 89% to a dungeon of A-Class or higher.‘

That may be why there were many options for compensation.

‘And it does not end with just an increase in options.’

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With most hunters choosing randomly unconditionally, it would be a disadvantage for the hunter if the number of mediocre items increased and the proportion of trash items increased.

However, the scene in front of me right now was nothing like that.

‘There’s almost no A-Rank.’

The compensation for the A-class dungeon did not mean that there were no F-Class or E-Class things.

It was just that there was a higher probability of getting a higher grade item. However, most of the visible ore bodies were above A-Class, and S-Class seemed a lot more than average. It appeared to be due to my high contribution.

If any of the hunters who had a lower contribution than me were to choose additional rewards, their options would differ from mine.

-Please select a reward.

‘It’s so hard to pick just one.’

Each ore body danced, making its own Mana pattern. The observation narrowed my options to two.

One was an item with SS-class value when looking at the clarity of light, and it was believed to contain the power of movement and protection, although its actual performance was not known.

The other one also had an S-class pattern. I think it was a kind of weapon.

I saw some other skills cards that might come in handy, but it was hard to choose. If it was something I had already learned, the only way was to sell them and cash them, but it was a shame to give up the items and choose money when I came all the way here.

‘Yes, it’s an item no matter what. As originally planned.’

An item that humans couldn’t have had in their previous lives. Therefore, I chose an artifact that even I could not know.

The contemplation didn’t take too long. I chose an SS-Class item.

‘I already have weapons, so…’

And with that, I made my decision.

-Granting user-specified rewards. Thank you for your hard work.

Weeng!

The ore body I chose came near me and exploded. A beam of light flashed through the sky.

‘This is ···?’

What remained was a small, transparent glass-like object. Inside the space were fine white-blue particles that were shining brightly. The system message popped up as I touch it.

[Stardust Wing]

-Item Description: Mana Injection Type Self-Floatation-Movement Equipment used by former Sebrarian inspection administrators. They used this item to handle the grueling schedules needed to travel several times a day within the vast territory. When inserted into the body, it is imputed and activated according to your will. It helps protect users from external threats such as atmospheric composition, atmospheric pressure, temperature, and frictional energy while in motion and fly at high speed. Given that the territory that had to be controlled by one inspector general in the empire in the past expanded to an entire planetary system if there was a shortage of workforce, so, it can be inferred from the intensity of the administrators’ work at the time.

※ Precautions: If you collide with an obstacle that is more than a certain altitude during a flight, you will burn your Mana twice as much, and in some cases, you will be hurt badly. If the user’s Mana is wholly consumed during flight, all the item functions will disappear, so be careful.

I thought while looking at the message.

‘Did it itemize the Levitation spell? Flight-Type Artifact? It’s a shame that it is the kind that constantly consumes Mana.’

I didn’t even care about the explanation of what it had to do with the Sebrarian Empire. It seemed to be another level of history that I had never heard of in my previous life. Planetary systems and other expressions would be a table of unnecessary past knowledge, rather than an item’s function.

What I was thinking about was how to use this in combat. They wouldn’t have showered an SS-Class light for nothing.

‘This type is eventually determined by what happens to Mana consumption efficiency and how precisely it can control movement and speed during flight.’

It told me not to run into obstacles, so I was planning to go out and experiment. As I paused to recollect my thoughts…

Boom boom!

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I heard something exploding upstairs.

‘McKid’s starting to move.’