Hell Mode: Volume 5, page 15
Even though we took it completely by surprise, we didn’t manage to hurt it at all.
“Okay, seriously, who are you guys?!” the wolfkin shouted again.
“Um, it looked like you were in trouble, so we decided to jump in to help you out,” Allen replied. “We’ll handle this monster, so you all run.”
Which is a lie, of course. We came because we want to kill this floor boss. If you fight with us, we’ll have to figure out how to split the spoils, so please, get out of here.
“Do you even know what you’re doing?! That’s BB!”
“BB?” Is it famous?
“Its full name is Blood Blast Beetle. It’s Rank S. You guys were really gonna fight it without knowing all that?”
So it really is a Rank S monster.
Each floor in this Rank S dungeon had several floor bosses, but there was one that was guaranteed to be Rank S. On Floor Two, that was BB here. Currently, BB was facing Allen’s group, hovering motionlessly in the air.
During this time, the scattered beastkin had returned and assumed a protective formation around the fallen catkin as she treated her own wounded foot and got back up. She was likely this party’s healer.
Having determined that BB was an enemy that required complete focus to face, Allen said to the wolfkin, “I’m sorry, but we want to concentrate on this fight. Would you mind leaving this to us?”
The wolfkin studied Allen’s face, then nodded. “Okay. If we both make it out of here and live to see another day, I’ll repay you somehow.”
“Thanks. I’ll make sure to come calling,” Allen replied, figuring that framing this encounter as a transaction rather than charity would make it easier for the beastkin to leave.
“All right, we’re getting outta here!” The wolfkin was about to turn around, but stopped. “By the way, what’s your name?”
“Allen.”
“See ya around, Allen. Name’s Uru. By the way, if you didn’t know, magic doesn’t work on BB.”
The catkin tugged on the wolfkin’s sleeve. “Uru, come on.”
Uru nodded. “You guys, we’re outta here!” He turned around and ran off at top speed, his companions following close behind.
Oh damn, that is useful advice. On top of being ridiculously tough, it’s immune to magic? Hmm, looks like its weapons are mainly the horn and jaws. Doesn’t look like it has a poison stinger. Does it know how to use magic?
Allen wasted no time in observing the enemy closely and formulating ways to defeat it.
Everyone besides Meruru still has yet to raise their class skill to Lvl. 6, but in terms of pure stats, they should be a bit stronger now than when we fought Rehzel.
All the Gamers had skills that gave them stat buffs when their class skill reached Lvl. 3 and Lvl. 6. Although the fight with the white dragon had helped them level up a lot—except Allen and Meruru, of course—their class skills were not quite there yet. Even so, they were already a bit stronger now than when they fought the Demonic Deity in Rohzenheim.
“Krena, Dogora, those jaws look nasty. Keep your distance when attacking!”
“Okay!”
“Got it!”
As the two vanguards warily approached the monster, it lowered its head and charged forward as if to skewer them with its horn. The two dodged it flawlessly, even landing attacks as the boss sped past. Since they were both wielding two-handed weapons, they could attack while maintaining enough of a distance that they could get out of the way of any sudden attacks.
“Cecil, shoot a few fire spells at it!”
“Huh? But that guy said that magic doesn’t work against it!”
“He did, but we should probably test it out instead of just taking him at his word.”
“Very well. You’ve got it!”
Without further ado, Cecil shot a large fireball at BB. Having heard what Allen said to Cecil, Dogora and Krena dived to the sides with perfect timing; they did not even have to look back, as they had trained how to keep tabs on what was going on in the back lines. Thanks to them, BB could not see the spell until the last second and therefore shot straight into what ended up being a huge explosion.
“Kashuu! Kashuu!”
However, when BB reemerged from the flames, it remained entirely undamaged.
Hmm, bug-type monsters are supposed to be weak to fire. This confirms that it does have extremely high magical resistance. Guess we’ll have to stick with non-magical attacks.
Since he now knew that Uru’s advice was indeed true, Allen moved on to the next strategy. This was the same strategy that he had used ever since his Academy days. And thanks to participating in the war in Rohzenheim, the party now had much better teamwork.
“Krena and Dogora, be ready to use your Extra Skills at a moment’s notice.”
“Sure!”
“Got it!”
“Sophie, use the Blessing of the God of Spirits! Volmaar, use your Extra Skill to destroy one of BB’s eyes!”
“Of course, Lord Allen.”
“Understood.”
“Cecil, stop BB from moving by barraging it with spells. Match my timing!”
“Very well!”
First, Sophie activated Blessing of the God of Spirits using all her MP, prompting Rohzen to do his hip-swinging dance. Shining bubbles fell on the No-life Gamers like rain, raising all their stats by thirty percent.
BB just happened to be retreating at that time. Seeing this, Allen seized the opportunity by Summoning several Stone Es and making them blow themselves up. As BB got slammed against the ground, a Dragon B appeared and bathed it with Hellfire of Fury.
How’s that timing for you?!
“Gagh...”
The next moment, BB shot out of the flames and stabbed the Dora with its horn, reducing it to bubbles of light.
“Take this!”
Aiming for the moment when the Dragon B was disappearing, Cecil unleashed a giant icicle that slammed into BB. However, once again, the monster only bounced on the ground a few times but otherwise looked none the worse for wear. It quickly regained its balance and resumed hovering in midair.
“Mmph!”
Volmaar used his Extra Skill, Arrow of Light, but it was deflected by one of the beetle’s large jaws.
“Kishaa! Kishaa!”
BB opened its jaws and mouth wide, revealing its fangs and tongue and making disgusting sounds. It then abruptly charged forward.
How about this?
A Stone B suddenly appeared in BB’s way, holding out its large round shield. At the moment of impact, the Summon used Total Reflect, a counter move that dealt three times the damage received.
“Oh! We finally damaged it!”
The beetle’s bloodred carapace now bore visible cracks that leaked purple fluid. Immediately, a heat haze sprang up around Krena’s body as she activated Limit Break to follow up with more attacks that made the cracks grow steadily larger and larger.
“Good work, Krena! Now we’re finally getting somewhere. Go for broke!”
“Yep!”
Krena was about to press her attack when BB suddenly grabbed Dogora with its massive jaws. Dogora struggled as hard as he could, but BB held him fast, shield and all. The beetle closed its jaws, trying to split the boy in half.
“Uh-oh! Krena, destroy one of the jaws to free Dogora!”
“Okay!”
Using Limit Break and one of her Sword King skills, Krena focused her attacks on one of BB’s mandibles. Just in time, the jaw snapped, allowing Dogora to slip free. Apparently the attack that had worked against Rehzel after his transformation was also effective against BB.
“Dogora, you okay?!”
“Mm, all good.”
Seeing Dogora bleeding from both arms, Keel rushed forward to cast Healing Magic.
Things would’ve been bad if Dogora hadn’t been holding that large shield.
BB’s carapace was now cracked all over and one of its jaws was completely bent out of shape. Thanks to Dogora holding on, however, Krena had been able to get in several good hits.
“Almost there, everyone! We’re taking it down!” Allen shouted.
For some reason, BB headed for Stone B all of a sudden and, ignoring the fact that one of its jaws was bent, clamped them around the Summon. The next moment, its body started flashing.
“Wait, is it— It’s using Energy Drain?!”
Allen caught on to what BB was doing almost immediately. He quickly reverted the Summon to card form, but it was too late. BB’s giant jaw had already returned to normal and most of the cracks on its carapace were gone.
Aww, after all the effort we put into whittling down its health... So this monster can’t use Healing Magic, but it does have a way to heal itself.
“What’re we gonna do now, Allen?!” Cecil asked.
Allen nodded. “All right, looks like we don’t have a choice. Everyone!”
“Yes?” Krena lifted her greatsword, eagerly awaiting Allen’s command.
As everyone focused on Allen, waiting to see what strategy he would come up with in the face of this despair-inducing development, he announced in a loud voice, “We’re running away!”
“Huh? O-Oh, very well.” It took Cecil a moment to comprehend what Allen just said, but she quickly conceded right after.
Someone’s gonna get hurt if we continue forcing ourselves to fight this monster.
And so, the No-life Gamers hopped onto their Bird Bs and flew away.
Chapter 9: Gathering Medals
When Allen saw that Blood Blast Beetle (BB) possessed a means to heal itself, he realized the chances of the No-life Gamers defeating it here and today were extremely slim, considering how hard it had been for them just to hurt it. Back when he played online games in his previous life, he had defeated many self-healing bosses like this through careful positioning and strategizing. However, he recalled that a single slipup in positioning often cost him greatly, and in cases where he had no way of interrupting the boss’s healing ability, the price of victory often included numerous casualties.
The longer it took to make a judgment call on whether to stay or leave, the more danger his companions would be exposed to and the more recovery items they would end up wasting. This was why Allen had immediately called for a retreat. He considered quick decision-making to be an important duty of a party leader.
BB had high Endurance and was extremely fast, but the Bird Bs the No-life Gamers were riding had Jet, an Awakened Ability that boosted their already impressive speed by severalfold. The giant beetle chased them for some time, but once they were far away enough, the monster gave up the pursuit, allowing them all to heave a collective sigh of relief.
As everyone caught their breath, Allen called out another Bird E and had it act as a decoy by leading BB somewhere far away from other adventurers. Even after the No-life Gamers resumed searching out and killing floor bosses, he continued to study the red beetle through the eyes of that Summon, as he was particularly curious about how far away it could detect its targets from and how long before it would teleport after not making contact with anyone. Thanks to the infamy of this boss among the adventurers, no one actively sought it out, and therefore Allen had no worries of his observations being interrupted.
An hour after losing the No-life Gamers, Hawkins caught sight of BB disappearing.
As expected of a Rank S dungeon, throwing something like that at us right off the bat.
For the next half a day, the No-life Gamers dedicated themselves to killing the other floor bosses. Each one dropped a magic stone and a large bronze medal. The group now had three medals in their possession.
They had thought they would have come across treasure chests while wandering around, but for some reason, this had not been the case. Even Bird E, whose Awakened Ability enabled it to scout up to a hundred kilometers away in a split second, did not find anything. Of course, Farsight could not see through obstacles, so there was still the possibility that all the chests were obscured somewhere.
This place almost feels like a newly released zone in a game, what with how hard it was to get to fight the floor bosses and the distinct lack of treasure chests. I don’t think we’ll ever come back to Floor 2 to farm medals again.
Many of the online games Allen had played in his previous life would release new maps or areas every once in a while. Whenever this happened, the game’s player base would balloon, sometimes to the point where there would be more players than mobs. This phenomenon seemed to be exactly what Allen was observing on Floor 2 here in the Tower of Tribulation.
“All right, let’s leave this absolutely lousy floor behind and move on to the next,” Allen said in a huff.
“You still goin’ on about that?” Dogora asked Allen with a smirk.
“Of course. It’s been a while since I had such a terrible experience.”
“What d’ya mean by ‘it’s been a while’? This is your first time here.”
Allen’s group made their way to the cube that led to Floor 3, their hard-earned medals in hand.
“Greetings, No-life Gamers. I am Floor Operating System S201. Do you wish to travel to the next floor? Or do you wish to return to Floor 1?”
“Take us to Floor 3, please.”
“Floor 3 it is. Please present three bronze medals.”
“Here you go.” Allen held out three bronze medals bearing depictions of a chicken, a lizard, and a third monster. As it turned out, the medals bore cutesy engravings of the floor bosses that dropped them.
“Three bronze medals received. Proceeding to send you to Floor 3.”
The next moment, the ground beneath Allen’s feet changed from dirt to sand.
Oh? This is Floor 3? Hmm, I don’t see any prominent features nearby. Wait, the ground here is sand. Does that mean this floor is a desert? Is the visibility on this floor good like on the last one?
“There seem to be a lot of dwarves on this floor,” Allen observed out loud. “Gimme a second to get a grasp of the land.”
“Please and thank you.” Due to Allen’s influence, Cecil had also come to prioritize information gathering. She and the rest of the No-life Gamers checked out their surroundings as Allen sent a Bird E into the sky.
From the air, Allen confirmed that they had been teleported to an open plaza about a kilometer across, similar to the one on Floor 2. Beyond the plaza was an expansive desert of sand interrupted here and there by rock outcroppings large enough to be small mountains.
Multiple figures could be seen wandering about on the sand. They looked vaguely humanoid, but their heads were not held up by necks but appeared buried in the top of their torsos. Arms nearly long enough to graze the ground sprouted from their shoulders, and something crystalline was embedded in their abdomens.
Wait, those are golems! And there are quite a lot of them. They look a bit different from what I’d imagined, but that’s nothing new. So, all of those crystals contain a dwarf that’s piloting it, right?
The golems in this world had almost none of the mechanical vibe that came to mind when Allen heard “golem.” At the end of the day, these were not so much robots as they were puppets. Their bodies gave off a metallic sheen and did not look all that angular. And although Allen had heard they were a hundred meters in height, almost all of the golems here were only about ten meters tall.
I can see how this floor is totally suited for golem pilots.
Floor 2 had a large forest and expansive grasslands, both of which were perfect environments for beastkin with their exceptional physical prowess that enabled them to move fast and maneuver deftly. Perhaps they even possessed abilities that helped them find treasure chests where Allen’s group had failed.
Which reminds me, we’ve yet to meet Uru and his group again.
Uru had promised to pay Allen back, but Allen was not particularly interested in chasing this debt. There was nothing he wanted from adventurers who mainly stuck to Floor 2, and he highly doubted they knew any information that would be useful for clearing the dungeon. If he were to demand bronze medals from them, with these medals going for a hundred gold each on the market, there was no telling how many they would be willing to part with. In all honesty, Allen thought it unlikely he would ever meet them again, mainly because he was not interested enough in his reward to go look for them.
Allen was in the middle of these thoughts when he suddenly realized something. “Ohhh, so this is what Admiral Garara was referring to.”
“What’s happened, Allen?”
“Oh, hey, Cecil. Turns out this desert is actually really advantageous for dwarves.”
Once his full party was gathered around him, Allen pointed toward what he had been looking at: a battle between a golem and a scorpion-like monster. While the golem was defending against the monster’s attacks with its thick armor, the rest of the pilot’s companions had encircled the scorpion and were attacking it from every angle.
“Apparently this desert has monsters that hide in the sand to ambush people. So it’s the golem’s job to take that first attack and protect the rest of the party.” Thanks to being so tough, golems are great for triggering surprise attacks.
Whenever the scorpion tried to attack the surrounding adventurers instead, the golem used its bulky body and long arms to interfere. There was even a beastkin shooting arrows from atop the golem’s shoulder. Its height both protected him from attacks and provided a great vantage point. It was truly killing two birds with one stone.
The admiral knew this is how things are on Floor 3.
“Meruru, we’re gonna do our best and find you at least five slates.”
“Thankees!”
I won’t say this out loud since Meruru’s here, but so many things in Baukis are huge rip-offs. Like, seriously, three thousand gold for an Iron Grade slate? Are you kidding me?!
A golem pilot had to slot slates into their magic disc in order to summon their golem. Each magic disc had ten depressions, but filling just five of them with slates representing the head, torso, left arm, right arm, and the legs was the bare minimum to complete a golem. These slates were, as a general rule, obtainable only inside the dungeon. The temple did sell them, but at a thousand gold for a Bronze Grade slate and three thousand gold for an Iron Grade slate, this was nothing short of price gouging. To buy a bare-bones set of Iron Grade slates would require fifteen thousand gold. Add on the fact that adventurers could sell any slates they did not need to the temple, who would purchase all Bronze Grade slates for a hundred gold and all Iron Grade for three hundred. This meant that regardless of the part or grade, the temple sold slates for ten times higher than they paid for them.
