Al, flags always come back to bite you in the a.s.s... Also cliffhanger and next chapter in about 8-16 hours.
Year 7444, Month 5, Day 28
We leave the 30cm or so rock with a square like characteristic in the place we were resting until now along the wall as a landmark and then started walking with the wall along our right side. Miduchi is still holding a different {Light} rock. After walking for a short while there was an opening in the wall and you can tell it"s a pa.s.sage further inside.
"It would be bad if we suddenly approach and there"s something inside. Shouldn"t be return once and try checking the other direction for pa.s.sages as well?"
Miduchi said. There"s no reason to be against it.
"That"s true, I think it"s probably fine but it"s true the probability is high something is inside. Let"s try going around to the other side once then?"
I said that and turned around.
We pa.s.s by the place we were resting until just now and continued even further along the wall with it on our left side. Judging from the distance we walked, we"ll have ended up making one full lap around the pillar pretty soon. Ahead of us I can see the pa.s.sage entrance.
"It seems we returned. There"s nothing else we should go and or look at. Let"s go."
"Yes."
"Fundamentally the rooms in the center of the dungeon where the teleport crystal is are around 30m in every direction. However, this pillar has a diameter of 100m or so. It"s possible there"s a monster inside. Let"s make sure we remain cautious."
"Of course."
Miduchi holds her short sword in her right hand and the {Light} stone in her left hand. I"m still holding Toris"s long sword in my right hand as well. We carefully stepped foot inside of the pa.s.sage. The width of the pa.s.sage is roughly 3m, the height of the ceiling is around 4m I guess. The pa.s.sage itself seems to have a length of around 10m? 10m ahead the walls and ceiling on both sides disappear. It turns into a large room with the floor stretching out.
"Be careful of traps."
"Yeah."
We slide our feet as we proceed. Since {Light} cut off once along the way Miduchi reused it again. In addition I had her make two extra {Light} stones that I"m holding.
We stepped foot into the room. Since it"s inside of a large cylinder, I guess it"s a doughnut shaped room? In the front I can see something like an even thinner pillar than the one we just entered that"s around 40m. Judging off the thickness of this 100m or so pillar that we walked around and the 10m length of the pa.s.sage we just pa.s.sed through, it"s outer area should be around 80m, and inner diameter around 40m, with a width of about 20m a doughnut shaped s.p.a.ce, furthermore inside of that there"s another 40m round pillar in the center is how it"s structured.
My intuition is telling me. There"s a boss in this room! I quietly whisper to Miduchi.
"Stay behind me on the right side. If you can see a monster then anything is fine hit it with some magic. Alright, stay behind me on the right."
"Yes."
Since both Miduchi and are right handed. We"re holding our weapons in our right hands. Then I need to remain on the side where her heart is.
And, soon after we stepped foot inside of the doughnut I threw the two stones we had used {Light} on ahead of time in both the right and left directions about 20m. I guess it heard the sound of that falling. I could see something drifting in the center of the pa.s.sage(?) of the doughnut shape on the right side. There"s no mistake it"s a monster. I identified it in an instant while using an attack spell.
It"s {Lightning Bolt}. In an instant from my left hand electricity surges and reaches in front of the monster, and then it bounded 50-60 cm in a different direction! It can"t be, again!?
【】
【As.e.xual/25/7/6444 ・ Death=Tyrant.King】
【Status： Normal】
【Age： 999 Years】
【Level： 25】
【HP： 1114(1114) MP： 347(347) 】
【Strength： 20】
【Speed： 27】
【Dexterity： 89】
【Endurance： 24】
【Special Ability： Infra-red Vision】
【Special Ability： Magic Reflection 24】
【Special Ability： Slow Beam】
【Special Ability： Sleep Beam】
【Special Ability： Charm Beam】
【Special Ability： Floating Ray】
【Special Ability： Petrification Beam】
【Special Ability： Bleeding Beam】
【Special Ability： Fear Beam】
【Special Ability： Disintegration Beam】
【Special Ability: Death Ray】
【Special Ability： Venom Beam】
"Run away!!!"
Just as I said it I ran back the way we came. The speed it"s floating over here doesn"t seem to be all that fast but there"s no way to know if that"s it"s full speed. Miduchi and turned around the right side and ran away at full speed.
The pa.s.sage that took us close to 2 minutes to pa.s.s through on our way we ran through in less than 2 seconds, when we arrived near the pillar I said "Over here!!" and ran towards the last {Long Duration Light} rock we had placed in a dash. It was a good thing in this bad situation that we placed random rocks with {Light} on them in various places so we didn"t end up tripping or falling over.
Around 400m from the entrance pa.s.sage of the pillar, it"s almost like an airfield at night with how the light from the {Light}s are lighting up our path. We couldn"t do anything other than hide in the darkness a bit away from the light while keeping watch.
"A..Al-san. Just now you used magic while running right?"
What are you asking at a time like this, really.
"Yeah, I can do it. Since I trained to do it."
I replied to it irritated.
"Is that a Unique Ability as well?"
Ah, for that sort of reason.
"No, this one is just the results of seriously training on a daily basis for a number of years..!"
We were whispering in a low voice but I put my head on top of Miduchi"s head(I can"t see so I just guessed where it was but it doesn"t seem to have been mistaken) pushed her down to the ground, while I laid down as well.
The monsters that slowly came out of the pa.s.sage had a diameter of just over 2m and a blackish-red body that was something like a rugged sphere floating in mid-air. From the top of the sphere there was a number of things like tentacles growing off of it. And then..in the center of the sphere there was something like a large opened eyeball. Underneath that I can see a number of fights like a large atrocious looking mouth. It"s floating around here and there near the entrance of the pa.s.sage as if looking for it"s prey. Even though it has an eye can it not see visible light?
"Ah!! That is behol.."
Do you know about it? Miduchi.
As expected of a Dark Elf I guess. Though I know what"s expected of them.
"Right now, I"m looking at it. Quietly.."
I"m sure Miduchi remembered my Unique Ability, she quietly held her breath.
"It"s race is Death=Tyrant.King, HP is 1114, MP is 347. Age is 999 years old, level is 25...It has so many special skills that it"s a pain to try and read them all out.."
I whisper in a low voice.
"They"re all beams right?"
"Eh...Yeah, not all of them though. Most of them are beams. I"m amazed you knew that. I"ll check over as many of them as I can before the {Light} cuts off."
I said that and opened the sub-windows of 【Identify】.
【Death=Tyrant.King: The result of a species of Eye=Tyrant race turning undead. One of the special skills it possessed before turning undead Magic Resistance was weakened into Magic Reflection, and in comparison for only being able to use it a number of times equal to it"s level, reductions in HP from aging are lost. Also, the characteristic large eye in the center of it"s body almost completely turned into a mineral crystal upon turning into an undead and it"s ability Anti-Magic Ray was lost but simultaneously it"s weakness was also lost. Furthermore, it"s vision has weakened and it only has half the range of 1.5m per level remaining in it"s Infrared Vision. As a result of the eyes on the ends of it"s tentacles rotting and becoming dull the only remaining vision it has is the halved Infrared Vision from the large eyeball in the center of it"s body. Furthermore, since it"s brain has also rotted it"s intelligence has decreased considerably and it"s thought process has fallen to less than the level of a wild animal. Since that is the case, it is best not to think that conversation or negotiations are possible. Nevertheless, there are differences between individuals abilities depending on the state they were in when turning undead.】
I"ll open the second stage sub-window and check it as well. There seems to be quite a few places I can open it up but for the time being I"ll check it"s previous race. It would be good if something like a weakness is written down though.
【Eye=Tyrant: A magical living creature. It doesn"t possess the ability to reproduce. It has a spherical body covered in a chitin like that of the sh.e.l.l of a crab and large single eye in the center of it"s body. In every direction stretching out roughly 15 degrees in a cone from this eye it shoots off an Anti-Magic Ray. Just as can be seen this large eye is the weakness(it takes triple the normal damage when done directly to the eye) but it has an eyelid. Also it has fangs in it"s large mouth and specializes at biting as well. It possess ten tentacles from the upper part of it"s spherical body and each of those can use a different type of magical beam in a straight line. The varieties of beams are delay, sleep, charm, float, petrify, bleed, fear, disintegrate, death, and strong poison but all of them are the result of a magic effect. As a result of that, just the same as Magic Resistance and the various types of vision the special skills require the use of mana just like when using magic. The range is equal to the Anti-Magic Ray that comes from it"s primary eye and increases by 2m per level. It"s extremely intelligent but by nature is fundamentally evil and extraordinarily crafty, it almost never acts impulsively. It"s normal vision can pick up visible light including Infrared Rays, Radiation Rays, and X-Rays.】
Aaah!! That eyeball b.a.s.t.a.r.d returned to the pa.s.sage..I guess using 【Identify】 anymore than that is impossible. I wanted to check it"s special skills as well...
"Fu...That thing is..dangerous.."
It"s more powerful than any monster I"ve encountered up until now. Things like Franken or the Vampire are just like babies compared to that. It seems that a lot of parts of it have weakened since it was alive because it turned undead but it"s still not an opponent I can relax against. However, it"s extremely big that I was able to properly use 【Identify】 unlike up until now. However, a mineral crystal...I definitely would like to obtain it here.
"Al-san, that thing is a Behol..{The Gazer}. It has a meaning like looking or {The Gaze}. And it even has a suffix like er added to the end of the characters combining verb and noun. Being able to see the real thing..I"m deeply moved."
Is this girl an idiot?
In what world is there an idiot being moved seeing a monster..right in front of me.
"Isn"t that English? Not to mention the auxiliary verb isn"t even necessary. Well, I can"t say you"re wrong though."
"Adding the {The} is a form of beauty and to make it easier to understand. The reason it"s English is..and, Huh? Didn"t you notice it? All of the monsters that appear in this world are like the ones that come out in games and legends? Most of the characteristics match up as well."
Ah, that, I"ve heard about it from Kuro in the past as well. Well, I wasn"t surprised hearing that in the first place since there"s magic like Status Open though.
"I had lost my memories of my life but I hadn"t lost knowledge about these sorts of things so that"s how I managed to survive fighting against monsters up until now."
What"s with, this girl, she"s even more useful than I thought. Something like a dictionary. Come to think of it she did say she liked games...
"You, plus 1 point."
I said it while feeling a bit of admiration.
"It"s fine if you praise me even more."
Don"t say it so proudly. However, there"s no mistake it"s nice.
"What"s it"s weakness?"
"It doesn"t have one. If I had to say then it would be the large eyeball in the center of it"s body."
...
"After all I take back the point. But that thing, it seems it"s an undead. It feels like the ones that aren"t undead and have a living body are stronger overall. It seems it has the ability Magic Reflection but it seems it can only use it another 24 times, and the other beams I think we can do something about with {Anti-Magic Field}. Since they"re beams ice is out the question but if we can at least make it so it can"t use Magic Reflection anymore then we should be able to just bury it or something."
"Hohou~ by the time you just mentioned HP or MP and stuff but is that number high?"
Since I hadn"t brought up(most of the topics were about our upbringing. Since there were quite a few corpses that starved with no signs of combat, in order to natural increase our understanding the topics came to our lives until now) explaining ability levels up until now in our conversations it"s a question that"s only obvious.
"It"s HP was..1100..Well just over 1100 and a few points. Putting it frankly it"s absurd. In the case of a human, the peak is at 30 years old or so but even then it"s 110 or around 120 for someone with a lot. I"m sure it"s because your level is high for your age so you have 110. After that, it also had close to 350 MP as well, this is abnormal. A first-rate sorcerer has around 50 or 60. I don"t know why but you have 252 though. Well, I can more or less guess though."
I gave a quick and easy to understand explanation of the numbers.
"Uhya~ that is quite~ high. But, what should we do?"
"There"s no choice than to run or fight but the inside of that pillar should be a room and it seems that thing is the boss of the room so there"s no choices. Since it doesn"t seem like we could evade it while running pa.s.s to grab the teleport crystal with our backs to him. That"s why there"s no choice but to fight."
If it"s me then even if it"s a bit of a waste of MP I could create an {Anti-Magic Field} on my back, and above all else I can run while using but so technically there is the option of evading it and running. However, that mineral crystal is too captivating to give up. If it"s a crystal then it would be the best. Crystals are minerals right?
"I"ve come up with a rough strategy. Since there"s only two of there"s fundamentally only two strategies we could take. One is to run into the teleport crystal further in and teleport. However, if there"s no crystal rod in there then we"re done for so it"s rejected."
"That"s true."
Even though were up against an opponent with no real weakness, I was a bit surprised but Miduchi honestly agreed. Although, even if you can"t see the details of Identify like me, if you have as much MP as she does I think it"s only obvious to think you can win but..I don"t think the opponent is that easy.
"And, the remaining option to "fight and win" is what we end up at but we"re going with a strategy that can"t really be called one here. Since there"s tentacles above it"s body."
"It uses beams right? The brutal types that kill you, turn you to stone, or to dust."
This girl really knows well.
"I"m amazed you know that...That"s right. However, it seems that this is an effect of magic so it should be possible to block it with {Anti-Magic Field}. That"s why I"ll become the shield. You should stay behind me and when you see an opening attack it with magic. 24 times, in worst case if you hit it with magic 25 times then it shouldn"t be able to use Magic Reflection anymore. After that we"ll finish it off with magic. Listen well, make sure you don"t run out of mana. If you lose control of yourself in combat you"ll die."
"I already know that much, really..But, if I have to hit with magic over 20 times then I can"t put any power into it?"
"Isn"t it fine even if there"s not much power in it?"
"Then I think that should be fine."
"Ah, also, since it"s probably in the shape of a doughnut so we"ll slowly move back while going around in circles. If possible I"d like to create a dirt wall to block or hide form the beams but don"t put much expectations on that. Even if it"s me I can"t use a different magic while using {Anti-Magic Field}. In the worst case if it comes to a dead end then it can"t be helped. I"ll surround it in an {Anti-Magic Field} so if it comes to that..you beat it to death."
"If it comes to that time then if possible I"ll cut off the tentacles from the eyeball. It"s the conventional method of combat against {The Gazer}."
"I see, got it. Then, for the time being I"ll prepare four rocks with a long duration {Light}. I"ll hold those. I"ll scatter them around while moving through the doughnut to use for light. While I"m doing that you just focus on using attack spells on it. Only during the start I"ll use an attack spell as well. I think I can probably land eight hits on it. Got it?"
"..I understand."
An amazed response came back. I"ve practiced using up to eight warheads at the same time with my javelin-type attack spells.
"Alright, let"s go."
I stand up while saying.
We"ve already gotten it to use Magic Reflection once but I don"t know what kind of timing it will recover them. We need to hurry. Even if it comes to burying it with ice or dirt I can"t imagine how it will work because of Magic Reflection. It might even end up scattering ice and rock over here causing us to be in danger. It"s limited to the final resort.
And, I took into consideration hitting it with consecutive attack spells from outside of the range of it"s vision which has supposedly gotten weaker but I couldn"t adapt it because it"s unknown what the differences are remaining between individuals. It would be best to thing that the range of Infrared Vision differs based on the length of each tentacle as well. I can"t forget that depending on the direction of the tentacles it might even be possible for it to see a distance of up to 75m. Unless we were to hide behind the pillar in the center there"s no way to hide from a distance of 75m.
Even if we suppose that after turning undead it"s vision has dropped to the bare minimum, if we cling to the inner area of the doughnut then it"s almost entirely in it"s sight.
...........
We returned once again to the the side of the entrance of the pa.s.sage on the pillar while remaining vigilant. The guided lamp like {Light} we used on the way has long since disappeared but the rocks with {Long Duration Light} are still remaining so we followed along those and returned back to the pillar again. Just in case I create some more {Long Duration Lights} and placed them around the base of the pillar.
And, just as planned I made another four {Long Duration Light} rocks and quietly peeked into the pa.s.sage. Obviously it"s close to pitch black and I can"t see well. If I remember correctly, then it already can"t see visible light so I don"t think it will react to the light from the {Light} and felt a bit relieved on that point.
I quietly stretched out my left hand and lit up the pa.s.sage with the {Long Duration Light}. After all it"s not in the pa.s.sage itself. It must have returned to it"s original position (?) after losing track of it"s prey like a normal room boss. I turned around once to nod at Miduchi and after gathering my resolve took a step into the pa.s.sage.
Soon after we entered the doughnut shaped room I threw one of the {Long Duration Light}s inside.
It"s there.
It"s about 60m further on the right side of the doughnut. It"s in a position where it can hide behind the pillar in the center.
I can only see the large spherical body and eye and a large mouth with no slits. It"s just floating around as usual but it seems to have reacted to the sound of throwing the rock it"s slowly started turning around.
Without a moment"s delay I launch some {Flame Javelin}s into it. In an instant eight flaming spears reached the eyeball b.a.s.t.a.r.d but after all bounced off and disappeared. I created an {Anti-Magic Field} with almost double the mana of the eyeball b.a.s.t.a.r.d, 700 MP before the spears reached it and made it into a board shape to create something like an anti-magic barrier. This amount of mana and shape is one I"ve used a lot in the past against sister during training so it didn"t even take 1 second to activate. I"m already in the realm of masters.
And I looked at the eyeball b.a.s.t.a.r.d with 【Identify】. 【Special Skill: Magic Reflection 17】. d.a.m.n it, it seems that while we were taking our time it"s number of uses remaining recovered. I guess that means at longest it recovers one per 10 minutes. Well that should be fine.
It seems Miduchi is firing off {Flame Arrow}. A flaming arrow flew past my right about 1m away. I quickly transformed the {Anti-Magic Field} stretching it to the right. The {Flame Arrow} splendidly was about to pierce through the eyeball b.a.s.t.a.r.d but this ended up bouncing towards the ceiling and disappeared as well. Another 16 times huh? The eyeball b.a.s.t.a.r.d completely finished turning around. Now, it"s time for the real thing.
A small amount of lightning-like light came off my {Anti-Magic Field} barrier as proof that it was able to negate the magic. I"m sure this is some kind of beam. The eyeball b.a.s.t.a.r.d"s MP went from 347 to 335. It"s not all that strong at all but I take one step backwards.
Following that something like a red light was given off by one of the dull eyes on a tentacle from it"s upper body. It was blocked by my {Anti-Magic Field} in an instant and I wasn"t able to see the light. So there"s transparent beams as well...Although even if it was colored no matter how I think about it, it"s impossible to evade a beam of light that"s been fired.
This..Will Miduchi really have enough time to stick her face out and fire off attack spells?
"Hey, it"s a change in plan. Ah, no, it"s fine. Since it doesn"t seem like there"s any gaps it"s fine if you don"t attack. We"ll just keep backing up like this."
Thinking it would be bad like this I maintained my {Anti-Magic Field} barrier while we returned to the pa.s.sage. During that time it seems we took about five hits from beams. The eyeball b.a.s.t.a.r.ds MP is dropping rapidly and is already at 276. I"ll take on all of your beams and cut off your MP.
I guess as expected the eyeball b.a.s.t.a.r.d only has about the intelligence level of a wild animal, it just keeps firing off the beams consecutively. Lightning is being given off of the surface of my {Anti-Magic Field} one after another. The speed it"s floating towards us at is about pace an adult can speed walk. The eyeball b.a.s.t.a.r.ds MP is already 151. We"re maintaining a distance of about 30m from it while slowly retreating backwards around the doughnut.
Around the time we retreated about ten steps, it finally seems to have given up on firing beams. However, the eyeball b.a.s.t.a.r.d still has about 64 MP remaining.
This is bad. I guess even wild animals won"t just keep blindly attacking. Once it realizes that it"s pointless, what will it do next...I guess there"s no choice but to aim for it"s openings.
"What should I do? Should I try firing spells at it?"
"Since you can"t use missiles that"s not good. If you even leave the shadow of my {Anti-Magic Field} for an instant you"ll take one of those beams.."
"However.."
We glare at each other while walking backwards at a quick pace. After all, this speed is this guys limit. We"ve almost gone about 1/4 of a lap around the doughnut.
Ah~ I want an anti-personnel landmine {Clay-more}. If I had a landmine I"m sure I could damage it with that. Since I"m sure this thing can only reflect magic. One day I should think about developing the delayed fuse, including an electrical fuse and electric detonator. If it"s electricity then I can make it with {Lightning Bolt} after all...Though if it"s the electric current and voltage of {Lightning Bolt} there"s no way I could send it down a metal wire that"s only a few hundred meters.
There"s no meaning in thinking about things I can"t get my hands on right now. We"re in a state of lull but I don"t want to go into a battle of attrition. I guess we should try going all out and moving to the edge of the outer wall, where it should just barely be outside of range of it"s Infrared Vision before attacking? Since I"m sure the beams are equal to the range of it"s sight so it should only have about 1.5 times it"s level remaining, so if we"re at least 40m away from it..I considered it from the start but if I suppose there"s no difference, then even just making a small error on the distance will mean death. After all I guess it"s rejected.
Nn...
Miduchi can"t use {Missile}. I can use it.
And Miduchi has all of the elemental magic skills.
She should still have over 200 MP remaining as well.
"Hey, you, can you use a power {Anti-Magic Field}?"
"I think I can probably use it but since I haven"t really practiced it much it will take some time, but I, can"t use magic while walking."
..I guess it"s no good...
I didn"t really want to do it but I guess there"s no other choice than to wait for him to approach or approach from our end and after wrapping him in {Anti-Magic Field} we attack. I wonder Magic Reflection works on {Anti-Magic Field} as well?
No, wait a minute...