Volume 2 Chapter 19

We entered the secret passage hidden behind the waterfall. The thought had crossed my mind but it doesn’t seem like it’ll be that easy to reach the boss room.

[Fortress!] (Selene)

Selene activated her skill as a wall of light emerged from the center of Renoir’s shield and directly received the Lizardman’s heavy shoulder charge. The Lizardman was an extremely muscular bipedal reptile who held an axe in his hands and a pad on his shoulder, resembling something people wore in the 1890s.

(Note: I am unsure on what this part means so it’ll be great if someone could confirm this for me. Raws: 　斧を手に持ち、とげ付き肩パッドでの体当たりを得意とする世紀末スタイル。)

Two of them had appeared at the same time. The other Lizardman that appeared was currently my opponent. The Lizardman raised and dropped his axe as I deflected the attack and drove my sword into its neck, severing its carotid artery. After severing its carotid artery, I continued to move behind to its back and slashed his back once more. The Lizardman fell to the ground as blood gushed out from its back and neck, turning into blue particles as it landed onto the ground.

On the other hand, the Lizardman which charged directly into Selene had its weak points exposed to Luna who flanked and thrust her dagger directly into its body. Meanwhile, the last member of the party, Til was also busy.

[These bats, there are so many of them.] (Til)

[We can only rely on Til for the enemies in the sky, do your best.] (Youya)

Til was continuously firing arrows this whole time. Her opponents were the Mouse Bats, bats with large buck teeth that were also strangely fleshy for a bat. It was a monster that mostly spent its time in the air, and only Til was capable of attacking them unless they were descenting for an attack. Even while muttering complaints, she was accurately shooting arrows onto the Mouse Bats, knocking down one bat after another. No matter how many times I see it, her archery skills is an exciting sight. One of the surviving Mouse Bat’s signature buck teeth began to glow as it suddenly descended towards Til who had just released an arrow and was unprotected.

[Finally Luna is able to land a blow.] (Luna)

Our party’s middle guard, Luna followed up with a thrust from her dagger into the body of the Mouse bat. The blade penetrates deep into the Mouse Bat’s small body and turns into blue particles.

[Thank you Luna. Fuuee, I was a little bit surprised by that.] (Til)

With this, all the enemies have been safely defeated. Somehow we managed this far without suffering much damage.

[This is already the seventh ambush since we entered the passage.] (Selene)

[Amazing amount of monsters. Luna is surprised.] (Luna)

[I have already used up most of my arrows and my inventory is going red soon. I have to start creating new arrows soon.] (Til)

[At least it seems that no one has entered the passage ever since the monsters respawn earlier this week.] (Selene)

Since this path was hidden behind the waterfall, the number of monsters here have not been controlled by other adventurers. Thanks to this, it’s basically an all-you-can-hunt buffet for us. Normally we would welcome the monsters with open arms however we would prefer to conserve our strength for the battle against the boss making these encounters a pain in the ass.

[Selene, from this point on avoid using your skills and preserve them for the battle with the boss.] (Youya)

[I understand.] (Selene)

Fortress and Shield Bash were both powerful skills in their own right however they still required mana from its user, it’ll be better for us to consider conserving our mana and strength from now on.

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After walking through the secret passage, we have finally arrived at the the end of the passage in front of the boss room. Once we open the door, the boss battle will begin.

[As expected I’m exhausted. Luna’s legs are wobbling.] (Luna)

[I’ve lost some of the feeling in my arms. The monsters here are strong and persistent, and they have their own strange abilities. It was tough.] (Selene)

[It’ll be tough for us to battle the boss with how it is now.] (Til)

The three girls each had an exhausted look on their faces from the repeated battles. It wasn’t unexpected since we had fought another five group of monsters before finally arriving at the boss room. In a short period time, we have already encountered and fought twelve battles. Aside from our mana, our physical strength and spirits were already completely sapped.

[Let’s continue on to the boss room! Is what I would like to say but it’s time for a change of plan. Let’s take a break and have some food while drinking recovery potions.] (Youya)

[Hurray! As expected of Youya. Luna is happy.] (Luna)

[Snacks, food!] (Til)

[Physical condition aside, is this really okay?] (Selene)

[It’s fine since this is a one-way trip. Since we’ve already defeated all of the monsters on our way here, there isn’t any chance of a sneak attack from the back whereas the boss will never take a step out of its room. We should only challenge the boss once we are fully prepared for the battle.] (Youya)

As such, I took out a sheet from my magic bag and spread it out on the floor. The two children took off their shoes and sat on the sheet. I smiled bitterly and began to pour cold juice into cups and handed them to everyone. Times like these are when I appreciate the handiness of the Magic Bag as items that are placed into it remain as it is. Food placed inside will not go bad, making it possible for us to enjoy cold drinks and even snacks when we’re outside.

[Ah! Youya, is that the fruity rice cake! It was really delicious.] (Til)

[That is why I thought about buying it. I thought it was delicious too.] (Youya)

Til immediately began eating the rice cake.

[Delicious~~.] (Til)

I wonder just how tired she was as she started shedding tears while chewing on the rice cake. Looking at such a Til, someone stomach began grumbling as I turned towards the source of the sound. Initially I expected it to be Luna however the source of the sound was Selene whose face began turning red.

[Well, our chances of winning will be higher once we take a break. Lets challenge the boss after our tea break.] (Youya)

I smiled bitterly as I took out a stamina recovery potion and a greater mana potion and enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere of drinking tea and snacks in front of the boss room. Just like this, my physical strength, energy and plenty of mana recovered. With this, we should be able to put up a good performance.

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After we were done eating snacks, I began to explain our plan in approaching the boss. The boss attack patterns and skills as well as our party formation against it.

In this world, bosses ere an one of a kind unique existences. Only one of each boss can exist in the world at any given time. They are a rare existence, and their unique drop items were materials capable of creating excellent equipment with powerful effects. They also provided heaps of experience points and at the same time, depending on the rank of the boss it is possible to get items from the bosses special item drop table once they are defeated. However fighting a boss doesn’t only provide merits, but also a crucial demerit. Bosses in this world had overwhelming strength as compared to adventurers. Monsters in this world often gather in packs and groups to make up for their weaker individual strengths while adventurers would form a party and battle these groups of monsters. That was how the power level in the world was balanced. However, bosses were an exception. Bosses were designed to appear alone against a party of adventurers at the recommended level whom had researched the boss’s abilities beforehand and prepared additional provisions for the battle. Even then, it would be a close battle that could go both ways.

Every boss in this world is strong. In the first place, it was difficult to even search for the boss’s location, making it a life vs death battle to even get to the boss location. Yesterday I had already given a debrief about the information and strategy for the upcoming battle, but I will be going through the information once again to make sure that everyone is on the same page. Right now, we may not be at the recommended level for the battle, however our party has the potential to compensate for our lack of levels. So long as we do what we have to do, we will win the battle.

[Youya, Luna remembers it perfectly. It’s fine.] (Luna)

[Me too, me too!] (Til)

[I agree. I have understood the information thoroughly in my head. However, I am definitely afraid of the battle. It is a monster that even Youya is afraid of.] (Selene)

[The boss is on a whole different level from any monster you have battled up until now. You may not be feeling it right now but once you see it, your nerves will begin to appear. And similarly it will be a large obstacle to overcome in order to defeat it. However, anything is possible and nothing is impossible.] (Youya)

(Note: The last bit in Youya’s sentence sounds like a japanese proverb and I have no clue on how to translate it so if anyone could clarify it would be great. Raws: 形になるものも、形にならないものもな)

This will be the first battle where the girls will be facing the possibility of death. However, so long as I am alive, I will never let that possibility become a reality.

[But that’s strange. If the monster is as valuable as Youya says, then why is it still here? Wouldn’t other adventurers target this monster as their first prey?] (Luna)

[Put it simply, there isn’t anybody who understands the gimmick behind the waterfall. Every boss in existence only appears in a hidden room. However, just as Luna said. When the method to arriving at a boss room is discovered by an adventurer, it will often turn into a scramble for the right to challenge the boss. The peaceful method to decide who gets to challenge the boss would be the first-come-first-serve basis, however if the peaceful method isn’t accepted, then it would turn into a battlefield where the last party standing gets to challenge the boss.] (Youya)

The drop items unique to each boss and the shared boss-item tables were both valuable enough for adventurers to chase after. For dungeons with a boss room, adventurers would often camp out the entrance to the room several days before it spawns to be the first party to challenge it, however any adventurers that come after who disagree with the system would often use violence and threats against the first party.

The value of information in this world was high. Even if you managed to find a way to safely arrive at the boss room, it didn’t mean that the people who had already arrived would readily let you in. Fundamentally speaking, the known boss rooms are often being monopolized. By monopolizing the boss room, every two weeks you will gain access to additional rare items and large experience values.

[Scary. Luna didn’t know about killing other people just for a monster.] (Luna)

[Nothing can be done about that. So long as there is something that you wish for, especially when it is a unique boss drop item. There wouldn’t be another method in the world to obtain that item.] (Youya)

A monster that only spawns one of its kind every two weeks. Along with the drop rate of 5% for rare drop items that was fairly common for all bosses. However, that causes a situation where every adventurer will be targeting the boss to obtain as much rare items as they can. As for the items obtained from the boss, it is possible to obtain enough money to survive for the rest of your life. As such there are many people who aim to monopolize the bosses present within lower leveled dungeons to obtain rare items for a fairly low risk to the point that adventurers would be willing to kill other adventurers for it.

Unfortunately, the boss room present within the dungeon at Flaregard is already discovered as well as the method to arrive at the room. It is inevitable for us to join the battle for the boss as there is a drop item that can only be dropped by the boss there that I want. Although just for that boss, the entrance to the hidden room doesn’t appear until the boss is respawned, and since the method for traveling directly to the boss room was discovered, adventurers stopped entering deeper to clear out the dungeon, providing an abundance of monsters and unactivated traps in the dungeon. In regards to the battle for the boss room, it is still a peaceful battle as it is basically a game between the adventurers who aim to reach the boss through the hidden path, and us who will most likely be travelling the hard way.

[We’re are lucky that this is a boss that no one else besides Youya knows about. It’ll be tiring for us to fight other humans before the boss battle.] (Til)

[I agree. I don’t particularly feel like picturing that right now.] (Selene)

[Exactly as what Til mentioned. Now then, the time for chit-chat is over. Shall we begin?] (Youya)

The girls nodded confidently and stood up. Then, the four of us looked towards the entrance of the boss room. I pushed open the door and entered the door without any permission.

Boss rooms in these world has two ironclad rules.

First: Only one party can be present at any time.

Second: Until the battle is over, nobody will be able to leave the room. Even Return Stones are rendered ineffective.

The boss room is a spacious room with uniquely coloured green walls, with a large throne-like chair in the middle of the room. However, unlike a throne befitting a king, it is just a crudely made chair that is large in size. There was a figure sitting on the chair which was large enough to make me look like a newborn-infant. It was a boss with the head of a cow and a human body. A Minotaur. In one of his hand held a large axe which was suitable for his large physique.

[Human..Arrived…Long time…Well done…Puzzle..Door..Proven wisdom…Next..Is power.. Show me.. Defeat this Minotaur.] (Minotaur)

The Minotaur let out a horrifying roar producing an overbearing wind, sending chills down my spine. However it wasn’t just a normal roar, it was a roar capable of stiffening a person’s body with fear. As expected, everyone was rigid at the start as the Minotaur began to approach us. However, that rigidness was immediately dissolved.

[Everyone, don’t be frightened. Just remain calm and do as we planned. Afterwards, all that’s left is to win!] (Youya)

I let out a battle cry, and began running into the battle towards the Minotaur. The Minotaur began gathering power and activated his skill. It was a skill that the Minotaur would always activate at the beginning of the battle. If we were to receive that attack head on, it’s the end.

Now then, this is my first boss battle ever since the reset. Let’s win this, and push our party forward even further!

(Note: I’m going to just italics the name of each monster as they are introduced, but not when it is repeated. Also, for the ending it was slightly altered as the raws stated something similar to putting foil on? So i’m just going to assume what it meant. Raws:パーティに箔をつけさせてもらおうか！)