Volume 2, Chapter 7

Volume 2, Chapter 7

「Hiroshi.

「Aye?

「I get that this material’s valuable and all but should we really be standing around here for this long?

「If we were to get there ahead of everyone we’d have ta throw down with the boss all by ourselves, no need ta rush things.

Hiroshi replied with an answer that only addressed one of Artiem’s concerns and went right back to picking apart the wines and various leaves. His focus was unwavering, his hands glided through the air with purpose. It was clear to anyone that Hiroshi knew what he was doing and he did it well.

「Wasn’t there anything worth gathering on those walls you just blew a hole though?

「Those last few walls didn’t ‘ave anythin’ of value. Some of the plants on there could be used for class seven potions but I don’t see any reason why we should drop what we’re doin’ for a material we can find almost anywhere else.

「What’s so different about the ones here?

「With just a little pinch ‘o the good ‘ol alchemy I can transmute ’em into either Barcella or one if its substitutes Millaret, both materials for class one potions.

Artiem looked visibly baffled at the mention of class one potions. Both the first and second class potion recipes were a relic of the past, although five pots of the real thing can still be found scattered around the world. All five of those were exclusively hp pots, all the other types got completely used up while repelling the coordinated onslaught of limbo monsters.

As such it was reasonable to be healthily skeptical about Hiroshi’s ability to craft something that’s been lost to the sands of time. Even if Hiroshi was to achieve this highly unlikely feat there was no way of knowing whether it was the real thing or not as regular town folk could get a full heal from just a class eight while the average decently levelled adventurer could achieve the same effect with class fives. The difference in healing amounts would progressively scale the further down the ranks one went and by class three they would already hit the max hp cap, which made it downright impossible to tell a class three and a class two apart purely by the numbers.

「What’s a Barcella?

「A moss found within the great divine cavern situated around the summit which, when consumed raw, would heal for as much as a class five, with a lil bit of tinkerin’, of course.

「What about Millaret?

「It’s basically Barcella that’s been purified down to only its elements with healing properties. You’d think that it’d be more potent that way, but due to how those impurities interacted with one another they actually put Barsella ahead, which made it the choice material for potions. That being said, with a bit of workin’ around the difference is negligible at best.

Artiem stared on blankly as she was being bombarded with a flurry of specialized lingo. The whole exposition did little to clear up her doubts but at the same time her gut feeling had a hard time fully distrusting the highly expansive track record Hiroshi had going for him.

「Just know that the stuff we got on hand isn’t anywhere near enough for class one brewing, so as much as I’d love ta put my money where me mouth is that’ll come at a later time.

「Alright then.

Hiroshi, who had taken notice of Artiem’s dubious stare, off-handedly brushed off any implicit accusations with a trick up his sleeve by the name of reality. Once that was cleared up he returned right back to work and after a solid five minutes of silence he picked apart the entire wall clean.

「Now that that’s over with what say we take this pole axe for one more spin?

「Not going to stop you just, make sure to be ready for a fight in case there are monsters hiding behind that wall.

「I don’t need ta make sure of anythin’ since I’m almost certain that’s goin’ ta be the case.

「Uh, huh?

Artiem was in complete awe at Hiroshi’s reckless abandon. That’s not to say that she wasn’t giving credit where credit was due, his ability to sense enemies across dense objects was praiseworthy although Artiem, a pragmatist at heart, found it hard to fathom how, despite this foresight, he nevertheless insisted on charging in without any real plan in mind. This frustrating disconnect made her want to give Hiroshi a piece of her mind but she managed to hold back.

「Don’t ya worry ya pretty lil head, there’s more than one wall separating us and the monsters plus I’ve already got a strategy in mind in case brute force won’t do us any good.

「Are you sure?

「I’m sure I’m sure.

Hiroshi’s vague hints at there being a plan weren’t all that convincing but, if experience taught us anything, is that when push comes to shove he wasn’t fooling around. Whether or not those plans of his would go without a hitch was debatable but there was almost no doubt that he wasn’t intent on throwing his life away for no real reason.

Hiroshi, completely unaware of the inner turmoil happening right in front him, approached the wall with a sly grin, raised his pole axe above head and

「How do ya like me now, eh?

Swung it down like his life depended on it. Just like the many times before the attack disintegrated the walls in an instant, opening up a massive gaping hole in its wake.

What awaited on the other side was a pack of oversized squirrels which were a few heads taller than the average human.

「H-Hiroshi!

Their sheer size and number inspired fear in Artiem’s heart which made her unconsciously turn towards Hiroshi in hopes of finding relief. What she saw at that moment absolutely blew her away.

「Eat this!

「Where did you get that!?

Hiroshi’s battle cry was followed up by the sight of a super-sized pomey soaring through the air. To get a more accurate idea of just how massive it was, for comparison the one they shoved in Barold’s face was tiny by comparison. It’s as though an entire mutated cabbage head was repurposed into a bomb. For a normal human being it’d be a challenge to rip it off the ground, much less throw in a straight line of all things, but for Hiroshi, who could wield the heaviest of war-hammers without breaking a sweat, it came as naturally as breathing.

「Get behind cover!

Hiroshi yelled at the top of his lungs as he grabbed Artiem, who was standing frozen in place, and hid behind the wall. He finished casting defensive circle and fortress right as it went boom, the shock waves were so intense they could be felt across the entirety of the dungeon.

Although it’s destructive force falls short of the titanic roar it was still much more impactful than any lower tier advanced aoe ability. The squirrels in the epicenter of the blast were wiped clean off the face of the earth while the ones just shy of it were turned into bloody pulps. The few who happened to be in the outer blast radius had either their entire skeletons blown to smithereens or passed away from fatal internal organ damage, while the three remaining lucky rascals who didn’t get blasted into heaven suffered heavy damages. Just like that a few dozen gigantic squirrels met their maker in a sequence of events that took mere seconds to unfold in real time.

「What on earth was that!?

「I spotted it durin’ our hot spring outin’ and I simply couldn’t stop miself from seein’ what places I could take the little feller with a lil bit of selective breedin’. At some point it just got way too out of hand to return to the wild so I held onto it for safe keepin’.

「Selective breed this, selective breed that why is it always selecting breeding with you?

「As a craftsman it’s my sworn duty ta take mi inquisitive nature as far as it pleases.

Hiroshi made his way towards the remaining few squirrels who still had some fighting spirit left in them and quenched it through the use of outclass, while simultaneously blabbering on about some abstract concept that probably sounded better in his head. Artiem just stood on and watched.

A mere few seconds later said squirrels were already sleeping with the fishes.

「What in blazers was that!?

An explosion went off somewhere in the distance.

Haruna and Tatsuya, who had been making steady progress towards the source of the miasma, were stopped dead in their tracks by the shockwave resulting from the explosion.

「Do you think someone got in an encounter?

「Think? I’m almost completely sure of it.

「Judging by the magnitude of that blast it must have been a doozy up close.

「Makoto and Mio couldn’t have been responsible for this

「But that would mean that… they’re in danger!?

「Don’t rush to conclusions, we can check in on them via party chat.

Tatsuya shifted his focus towards the party chat after stopping Haruna from running to conclusions. Hiroshi was experienced enough to where he could respond to messages even in the midst of battle and in the unlikely case that it was Makoto and Mio behind this one of them would find the time to respond eventually.

（We heard an explosion, how are things on your end?）

（Besides the fact that it took us by surprise all’s good.）

（Our plan of avoiding the miasma is kind of getting derailed at the moment, asides from that everything’s peachy though.）

Tatsuya felt relieved to hear that Makoto and Mio weren’t in any immediate danger, as was evident by their jokey tone. Hiroshi had yet to respond, which was enough evidence in itself to rightly assume that he was the one to cause all the commotion.

（I’m responsible for alla the hubbub, sorry ’bout that.）

Tatsuya’s growing concern was swiftly dispelled by Hiroshi’s lackadaisical response. Just as he was entertaining the idea of pressing Hiroshi for further detail he got beaten to the punch by the man himself.

（When we busted through the wall a whole army of them things kindly welcomed us with open arms. I’m not much for social pleasantries so I had the super-sized pomey take care o’ that for me.）

（Didn’t you use them all up already?）

（Ya seriously think ya can get any conclusive results from a sample size of just one or two pomeys? Are ya deaf lad?）

（Now I’ll have you know-）

Tatsuya did not waste a single moment giving Hiroshi a piece of his mind. Due to his so called ‘inquisitive nature’ Hiroshi would frequently dabble in less than wholesome experimentation.

（As I was sayin’ before being rudely interrupted by a certain someone, I’m currently in the process of collecting materials from alla these dead squirrels. Most of the corpses be a teeny tiny bit too utterly mutilated to yield anythin’ of real value, but the few that remained relatively intact can be used to craft stat-boostin’ items, so I’m makin’ sure to salvage what I can. Oh and how do ya’ll feel ’bout squirrel meat?）

（What does it taste like, sensei?）

（Excellent question little one. It tastes like squirrel.）

（I’m sold.）

Just as Hiroshi was about to leave the party chat after having an eye-opening exchange with Mio, Haruna promptly butted into the conversation.

（Hiroshi.）

（Aye?）

（Did anything happen to Artiem?）

（Depends on what ya want to know. Are you askin’ whether she got caught in the crossfire or if she had another one of her ‘accidents’?）

（Both.）

Tatsuya and Makoto had a hard time holding back from laughing at Haruna’s wholesome directness. For her, on the other hand, this wasn’t a joke, it was a matter of life or death.

（Nothin’ happened to ‘er, in either sense. If it did we’d probably not be here discussin’ her well bein’ all willy nilly now would we?）

（I’m glad to hear that. I’ll make sure we pick up the pace so it stays that way.）

（No need ta rush, we’ll be collectin’ materials along the way, so if ya blast thought the entire thing ya will just end up facing’ off against the boss all by yerselves.）

（Ok.）

Hiroshi was completely oblivious to Haruna’s true motive. The dungeon run to him was less of a run and more of a leisurely stroll, so to speak. This attitude of his might have seemed inappropriate considering their set of circumstances at the time but upon further scrutiny anyone could gather that one was only able to maintain a state of complete alertness for only so long before their body gave out. As such taking it easy to some extent wasn’t just a good thing, it was the desired approach.

「Well, there you go.」

「I reckon a change in plans would be appropriate?」

「But of course.」

If there’s anything that last exchange solidified is the fact that they had effectively ballparked Hiroshi’s relative location. So long as they didn’t run into any boss along the way the journey should be smooth sailing.

「This card is confusing on so many levels, I don’t even know where to begin. We can facetime fellow party members but not see their location? What sense does that make.」

「It doesn’t even have a map function to begin with, can you believe that?」

Haruna hopped on the bandwagon. What both of them failed to realize is that the facetime function already made it remarkably more technologically advanced than most of what was available out there .

「If it did have a map function the adventurer’s association couldn’t make a quick buck peddling the widest array of maps known to man to unsuspecting victims.」

「That would certainly explain it.」

The adventurer’s association dealt in hand-drawn regional and dungeon-specific maps. They weren’t just any old scribbled on sheets of parchment paper either, they were put together with the blood, sweat and tears of all those who suffered an untimely death exploring each of those areas. Their brave sacrifice wasn’t in vain either as those maps assisted greatly in decreasing avoidable casualties all across the board.

The association was by no means against the idea of including a party member tracking system or a map function but in doing so the manufacturing process would become much more cost and human resource intensive as a result. It still had a chance to become a reality if not for the fact that the association was run internationally and every state, naturally, had their best interests in mind and throwing in those two extra quality of life functions would only serve to degrade the card’s cost to performance ratio.

In a similar vein map sales rolled in the dough like crazy so it wasn’t too conspiracy nut sounding to say that it was in the self-interest of each state to maintain the current state of affairs or, at the very least, not actively go out of their way to change it.

「Anyways I think it’s pretty safe to say that we should prepare to get in a scuffle or two on the way there if we take Hiroshi’s word for it.」

「So long as the monsters aren’t too overbearing I think we’ll be just fine, although I hope there aren’t any traps because I’m no good with those.」

「You’re not the only one.」

Up until this point they’ve managed to steer clear of any overly complex traps but how long their streak of luck would last only god knew. Being painfully aware of their own ineptitude at traps they chose to laser focus their attention towards directly above and below them since traps at these spots were particularly difficult to maneuver out of. If anything was to come from the sides they just hoped that a combination of a fast reaction speed and protection magic would do the trick, an idea which only really worked if the traps were few and far in between but that wasn’t the case. The vines had been frequently harassing them in random intervals without any intent of causing harm. This slowly chipped away at the laser focus they had going and made them realize just how valuable of an asset Mio really was to the team.

The whole area being one fluid tapestry of nothing but all the different shades of green in a palate made it feel like they were making no progress what so ever but they managed to overcome that by measuring their level of exhaustion and basing distance covered off of that.

「Hiroshi’s got a working pair I’ll say that much.」

「Why worry about traps when you can just brute force your way through walls as if physical boundaries were a mere suggestion.」

「What really gets me is how his first instinct was to take the least conventional approach without any second thoughts what so ever.」

「Tell me about it.」

For the most part it’s not the greatest of ideas to go about tearing down every wall in sight without taking the structural integrity of the dungeon into consideration. This kind of reckless behavior would be bad enough on its own right, what made infinitely worse is that Hiroshi, in his day to day life, was the poster boy for taking things nice and easy.

「I can sense something.」

「I can faintly feel it in the air as well. Where is it coming from?」

「Over there.」

The two had already covered a great deal of ground with a few insignificant encounters interspersed here and there when they came face to face with

「Is that a man eater?」

「Without a doubt, but there’s something off about it.」

「My best guess would be that it soaked up enough miasma to mutate in size.」

「Most likely.」

A humongous carnivorous plant taking up the entirety of the pathway through its sheer size alone. It had all the telltale characteristics of a man eater – a jumbled mess of undulating wines firmly attached to an even firmer stem that was responsible for shouldering their weight, a deep pitcher for digesting unsuspecting prey and thick roots. What set it apart from your average man eater was the size. It resembled a boss more so than a regular mob.

「How powerful is it?」

「In terms of raw power it should outperform a piaranork, but not any one of Barold’s doubles.」

「In short?」

「It’s beatable but the matchup heavily favors it.」

「Is it because of its large effective range and attacks per second?」

Haruna nodded to Tatsuya’s inquiry. A playstyle like Haruna’s that revolved around dodge tanking for survival is largely ineffective at dealing with attacks dished out in rapid succession. To add insult to injury its effective range was somewhere in the twenty meter department, while Haruna had to get up close and personal to deliver max dmg. Getting into melee range was possible if she went in gung-ho with a complete disregard for coming back out in one piece but the valiant sacrifice would go vain if the man eater turned out to be non-stationary.

「In that case, here goes nothing.」

Tatsuya, having reaffirmed the fact that Haruna was unable to keep up with her usual dmg output, considering the circumstances, decided that’d it be best to just smack their head against the monster repeatedly and see what works. He stood right outside the entrance and casted grand napalm. To no one’s surprise he landed a direct hit, although it really didn’t do much in terms of dmg because intermediate level spells had a significantly harder time punching through the natural defenses of a boss than something like an advanced level one would. What was important, however, is that it wasn’t completely resisted.

「Oh no you don’t!」

Haruna knocked him out of the reach of danger and made quick work of the vines that made their way towards the entrance in retaliation. This little sequence of events served one very crucial purpose – it revealed the boss’s effective attack range, which was just short of the entrance.

「Thoughts?」

「I think my attacks are largely innefective. I barely managed to bust through the surface and it’s already beginning to regenerate.」

「Very well, in that case…」

He began casting one of his highest single target damage spells – the holy octo-cannon. The spell was of an entirely different caliber from that of the grand napalm and if the latter managed to just barely punch through the boss’s defenses the former would have absolutely no problem tearing them into shreds. The man eater’s vines wallowed in pain as the attack chunked a third of its health bar in one fell swoop. As it stood Tatsuya had the greatest one shot potential out of the entire group, going as far as surpassing Makoto.

Except for the very rare instance where the stars align just right for Haruna to bust out her Elemental dance, which would blow Tatsuya’s holy octo-cannon out of the water in terms of raw single target dmg. There was a catch, as there always is with abilities that sound too good to be true, in that there was an off-chance that it would just straight-up knock the caster out unconscious. That’s why it has only been used once in their entire journey and that was only because they knew the enemy’s skillset like the back of their hand. If they didn’t and the enemy was to give them a taste of the unknown the whole encounter could have ended really badly.

「It still hasn’t begun regenerating.」

「There’s more where that came from!」

Just as he had finished waiting for the ability to come off cooldown Tatsuya had his cast interrupted through displacement.

「What in the-」

「Tatsuya, the walls!」

Tatsuya promptly turned his head only to see that the wall behind them had slowly inched its way toward them and showed no signs of stopping. They had no means of tearing it down, which meant that in due time they were about to be physically shoved into the boss’s room with no means of escape. After a short while this became reality.

「Figures it wouldn’t just stand by letting us take potshots outside its range.」

「We managed to put a considerable dent in its hp bar, I’ll consider that a one for team us and a zero for team oversized tentacle brain over here.」

Haruna took stance making sure Tatsuya was safely positioned behind her and began an attempt at bolstering morale through some pep talk. Tatsuya nodded in agreement and began cooking up a different spell while waiting for his main nuke to come off cooldown.

「If only I had gone all out with the nukes and learned something like Armageddon or implosion.」

「Realistically speaking how often would you even be in a position to use them to be worth the time investment?」

Tatsuya grumbled despite having mastered one of the single strongest nukes obtainable by conventional means. Armageddon was a powerhouse of an aoe nuke but it came with its own set of drawbacks. For one its radius was much too large and it only got larger with mastery and spell power bonuses which would be all fine and dandy in an mmo where friendly fire wasn’t a thing but alas, that wasn’t the case here. Secondly It’s cd, mana cost and cast time were set so high that using it for a second time in all but the most drawn out of battles was not a feasible feat. The third and final drawback isn’t so much of a drawback as it is an exploration of the human mind’s tendency to get overtaken by delusions of grandeur and believing that the world is at their mercy just because they’ve won the nuke equivalent of a dick measuring contest. This can be easily confirmed by all the players who, being drunk of their feet with power, attempted to clear an entire area full of high level mobs, only to have said mobs survive with a sliver of hp and proceed to beat them into a bloody pulp because they had wasted all of their resources.

Implosion, on the other hand, was the single strongest single target nuke in the game, within the confines of general skills, that is. Whereas Armageddon was an explosion that’s inherently directed outwards Implosion was directed inwards, which made it easy to tell which was aoe and which was single target at a glance. Since it didn’t have to be balanced around being aoe its damage output was close to rivalling that of certain extra skills. It was, however, highly situational with its fifteen second cast time and ludicrous mana consumption that would only allow itself to be recast a second time by players with mana pools as large as Mio’s. As such it was only ever used as an initiating ability for when one was able to get the drop on whatever mob they happened to be fighting that also warranted using it.

Due to these less than minor drawback the number of people who’d bother spending their time learning them were few and far in between and the one’s that achieved mastery on them were even rarer. The number of them that got to use twice or more in one battle were in the lower single digits, reserved for only the top most no-lifers ever known to man.

「Whatever I’ll just dispose of it with hell fire sanctum.」

Tatsuya figured that the natural plant weakness to fire along with the cleansing properties of fire when used against miasma would make for a double whammy, thus hellfire sanctum. While it didn’t quite match up to holy octo-cannon’s damage number it did manage to meet expectations as was evident by the vines wallowing ever harder than before. Just as he was about to follow that up with a fireball, which would finish casting by the time holy octo-cannon got off cooldown, the man eater caught them off guard with an abrupt change in strategy.

「It’s begun attacking a lot faster!」

「You hanging in there?」

「By a thread.」

If the flurry of attacks kept on getting faster and faster at that pace they’d eventually just overwhelm her. Under normal circumstances she would’ve been able to hold on for longer but she had to divert some of her attention to keeping Tatsuya safe and, to top it all off, her blade was no longer cleanly slashing off any of the vines. Haruna tried using every cc ability in her kit, she switched to a flame enchanted blade to take advantage of its weakness, all to no avail.

(I’ve got to make this work. If I don’t find way to cut through them we’ll…we’ll…)

Haruna’s unconscious had already begun imagining the worst possible outcome but she managed to hold it back from bleeding into conscious territory. A few things were certain about her current predicament – if she was able to cut through any of the wines with her regular blade that would buy her around twenty seconds and if she was to do it with the fire enchanted one that would put it out of commission for good.

What this meant was that as long as she could find a way to cut through their defenses with the fire enchanted sword they could successfully weather through this one, which was easier said than done in all fairness. If Hiroshi was faced with the exact same situation he’d just power through with brute force, Makoto would’ve cut through the wines like butter. Haruna, meanwhile, was reliant on raw attack speed meaning that her only option here was to use her head and get creative if she wanted to survive. There was the option of pulling out a sickle but she was hesitant about revealing her hand unless it was absolutely necessary as a last resort. As a result of this she made the right strategic call but reached it through faulty reasoning. If she was thinking straight she’d remember that her proficiency with the weapon was at a novice level, which by itself was bad enough but coupled with the fact that they were facing off against a boss of all things and the fact that the rapier was a stab focused weapon while the sickle was meant for slashing, meaning that she’d also have to get used to an entirely new weapon style on the spot. All these three factors combines would’ve undoubtedly spelled disaster.

Haruna was desperately trying to not let her unconscious take the wheel by intensely focusing on what was going on around her. She had already thought of a way out of this sticky predicament and was just aiming for the perfect opportunity to execute it, all the while making quick work of a wine that was attempting to get the drop on her from behind and successfully searing through another one that had its sights set on Tatsuya. After those two successive failures the onslaught got even more intense.

At that point her unconscious had to take matters into its own hands. All conscious thought had been cast away like an afterthought to make room for pure animal instinct to fully surface. In this fight or flight state of hers Haruna was able to coast by a simultaneous barrage from all four directions and even found the time to briskly dispose of two cheeky ones that were attempting to sneak in a hit on Tatsuya by slithering across the ground. What she didn’t realize in this drunken frame of mind was that one of them had been methodically approaching her from just outside her field of view and once she took notice it was already in the perfect position to bind both of her weapons. As she struggled to shake the damn things off while keeping the other wines at bay with fire magic, the man eater’s dipper had coagulated some of its stomach acid in the shape of a bullet and discharged it right at her.

(I won’t make it in time!)

Its airspeed velocity was just high enough to where it would reach its target faster than it could put up a defensive barrier. It wasn’t by any means fast enough to be completely unavoidable but if she were to take that route it would’ve just been on a direct course for Tatsuya. She could’ve redirected its trajectory if she hadn’t lost the aforementioned tug of war battle. Tatsuya was this close to bringing it down so she had to think of something, anything to buy him some time.

Haruna knew what had to be done so she embraced for impact and made sure to cover her head as snugly as possible to avoid fatal damages. So long as it hit anywhere else the combined defense value of her passive effects and wyvern leather armor would make sure that no lasting injuries would occur. Her precious locks would get corroded in the process but she really didn’t have a choice in the matter.

Tatsuya’s magic went off just as she had come to grips with the thought of parting ways with her luscious set of hair. Contrary to her expectations it wasn’t the holy octo-cannon but some other spell she’d never seen. She figured that Tatsuya alone knew the optimal casting order in this specific situation so she didn’t think much of it at the moment and patiently sat back for the inevitable acid shower. She waited and waited and waited some more but nothing happened.

「Eh?」

「I’ve put up a barrier, get a grip on yourself while you still can!」

「Will do!」

She said as she pulled out a sickle that was hanging from her belt and busted out another fire enhanced blade. Tatsuya called off the barrier and got right back to casting the holy octo-cannon.

「How do you like them apples!」

Haruna exclaimed as she proceeded to mop the floor with any incoming wines. The man eater tried the same congealed acid bullet thing in desperation but that was a swing and a miss since Haruna had slipped an ice enchanted blade under her sleeve for just such an occasion. The bullet got stopped right in tracks and shattered into a million pieces upon making contact with the ground.

「Move out of the way, I’m going to try to cheese this one!」

「Roger.」

Haruna cleared out of the way just as he had ordered and also took the opportunity to collect her rapier. Tatsuya’s holy octo-cannon went off a mere moment later but instead of one blast there were two.

「How about you try this one on for size!」

As those words left his mouth the man eater was promptly enveloped in the tender embrace of the holy octo-cannon which then cradled the poor thing to a better place, far far away from where the three originally intersected.

「What on earth was that all about?」

「Not something I’d recommend trying at home but it’s possible to have the same spell go off twice if you pop an instant cast unaspected spell with no cd nor cast animation during a very precise point in the wind up process. Many casters were concerned whether it was a bug or a feature so they asked the game company directly and it was confirmed to, in fact, be a feature. That being said it’s fairly inconsistent since the timing is so precise so I was taking a gamble back there and hoped that it’d pay off.」

「That sounds like it’d be nice to have.」

「The spell’s cost goes up four fold if one does successfully pull it off so it only really sees use on the rare occasions where quick dps is in order.」

Instant cast unaspected spells with no cd nor cast animation also had other uses such as putting spells off cooldown if used right. This is widely known as a ‘cooldown reset’ but it wasn’t without its downsides either since it’d double the mana cost of that particular spell, which only made it usable under certain conditions. They weren’t all too spam friendly either because of the effect queuing up more than a certain amount of actions per second had on input lag.

「Well anyway that was a close call.」

「I’ve fought mobs like this before in-game but here they just feel a lot more powerful for some reason.」

「Well there’s quite a bit if a difference when it’s adapting to every one of our moves in real time whereas in game it’s got a few mechanics at best.」

Tatsuya nodded to Haruna’s assessment of the matter and waddled off the collect the crystal that had been inconspicuously laying besides the man eater’s original location.

「My mana pool’s almost completely dried up, what say we take a quick breather?」

「I’ll put up a barrier.」

If there’s anything this mentally taxing encounter taught them it’s to appreciate just how easier life is with a dedicated tank holding the front lines.

Meanwhile Makoto and Mio.

「I could’ve sworn that wasn’t there before.」

「The miasma levels have gone way up, I think we might’ve been teleported against our will.」

Makoto nodded to Mio’s observation. Since they were actively avoiding areas with high miasma levels they have yet to get caught up in any encounter nor have come across any traps. Out of the entire three groups it was Haruna and Tatsuya who got the short end of the stick when it came to surprise encounters as Hiroshi’s gung ho approach to the dungeon, against all expectations, proved to be surprisingly efficient at circumventing the conventional dungeon perils that they took on the chin.

「Do you think this boss man guy’ll go easy on us?」

「Who says it’s going to be a guy, or even a humanoid to begin with?」

Makoto’s lighthearted jest was met with an immediate sassy remark from Mio. If there’s anything the two didn’t lack it’s a laid back attitude even in the face of danger.

「Specifics aside we still aren’t going anywhere until we get past it. Would you mind poking around for traps?」

「Roger.」

Mio went along with Makoto’s suggestion and approached the manmade door, that felt disturbingly out of place in a dungeon consisting of nothing but green, green and more green, with a calculated preciseness behind every step. This made it appear as though she was messing around to the untrained eye, due to how unconventional her walking form had become to suit the situation. After thoroughly examining the door it became clear that there were neither any traps nor a lock of any sorts. She gently pushed the door open and peaked inside.

…

…

The two nodded to one another and gently closed the door as though nothing ever happened.

「Well, that was one fugly thing.」

「That’s putting it lightly.」

Beyond the door stood a mob with the head of a leopard and the body of what could only be described as a failed freakish experiment to fuse a lizard and a gorilla together. It’s build most closely resembled that of a humanoid, which would make it seem as though things couldn’t possibly *that* bad, if not for…

「Why would fungi be infesting its entire body?」

Parts of the creature’s body were caked in a layer of mushrooms and hypha, while others had plant life growing out of them. Its eyes were vacant, as though the things very soul had been encroached upon by the parasitic fungi, leaving only an empty husk of what it once was. If this abomination were to spring into action it was safe to say that whatever laid beneath had no say in the matter.

Despite its gruesome state of affairs it was still fully possible to make out a clear mental image of what it had looked like before the infestation, which made it leagues more unsettling to look at than any old zombie.

「To use as sustenance?」

「Perhaps, but more importantly」

The creature’s outward appearance gave Makoto a good idea of what they should be expecting from it in a fight. She sounded worn out just from vocalizing this observation of hers.

「If it were to spring into life, we’d be in a really bad spot.」

Mio nodded to Makoto’s statement. Just like Hiroshi/Artiem had issues with raw damage output and Tatsuya/Haruna lacked in tankiness, Makoto/Mio’s pairing had its own flaws in that their aspected attack arsenal lacked in diversity. Mio’s short-hand enchants weren’t potent enough to apply any aspected buff, meanwhile Makoto had some holy damage in her kit but that’s about as far as it went. The former would’ve had access to fire damage in her bow abilities had she not shirked on the resource gathering part.

The fact that it was infested with fungi wouldn’t bode well with neither bow nor longsword users since, no matter how much they hacked away at or focused fire the core, so long as the parasitic fungi remained intact their efforts at downing the creature would remain futile. This feat would be a lot easier for someone like Hiroshi, who brandished a heavy maul and had access to both fire and scorch short-hand enchants, or Tatsuya and Haruna, who not only had plenty of aspected abilities to pick and choose from but a nice selection of aoe abilities as well.

Be that the case, they weren’t in a position to cherry-pick their battles, it was do or die. If there was anything they could take solace in it’s the fact that their combined damage output heavily outweighed that of Hiroshi’s, whose dps was so meager that there was a very real possibility of it not outdamaging the enemies natural hp regen. Or at least that’s how Makoto went about convincing herself that things could’ve been worse.

「Mio, did we bring gas masks or anything of the sort?」

「Yeah but I don’t think we’ll be needing them」

「What makes you say that?」

「Our armor’s got a class six hazardous environment resistance enchant.」

Makoto, stupefied by Mio’s reply, pinched the bridge of her nose in an attempt to process what she had just heard. Hazardous environment resistance was only really vital when adventuring in areas that, by themselves, were perilous enough to the point that so much as setting foot in one could mean certain death, such as volcanoes, poisonous swamps and the like. Class six enchants of this type were strong enough to where one could easily traverse areas with a dense enough miasma concentration to transform any human into a monster. Needless to say it didn’t have any problems whatsoever taking on an environment that wasn’t quite as extreme.The protection it provides was purely external, if the user was to be force fed any poisonous substance it would have no effect but in this particular case it’d protect the two from any spores or slime mold from latching on and attempting to eat away at their minds. The reason Hiroshi even bothered to apply this enchantment in the first place was because of Tatsuya’s hay fever but that’s just between you and me.

「In that case we’ve just got to have a backup plan in case it manages to contaminate us internally.」

「We’ve got all-purpose potions for that.」

「They work against parasites?」

「They sure do.」

That little exchange lead Makoto to believe that there’d be no real harm in having a tussle with the thing, the problem was how they were going to fell it.

「It’d be nice if we could just set the whole thing ablaze but I don’t think that’s feasible with just a torch and some oil, or is it?」

「I wouldn’t count on it.」

「I had it the first time.」

「Only magically imbued flames would have any effect on it.」

This realization left Makoto stumped. Being the contrarian that she is, she purposefully avoided acquiring any fire aspected sword abilities like the plague, oh how the tides turn. To be completely fair it’s somewhat understandable considering that the process of acquiring said abilities was a hassle to say the least, meanwhile holy aspected abilities were much less such, not to mention very hard to negate at that.

「Do you have anything that’d fit the bill?」

「Yes but damage wise it’s abyssmal.」

「Gotcha. Worst case scenario, we’ll slow roast that thing ’till it’s down for the count.」

The door began slowly creaking open just as Mio had nodded in agreement. Their time was up.

「You ready?」

「As ready as I’ll ever be.」

The two careened through the half-open door just as Mio had finished her sentence. Makoto bludgeoned the monster with her long sword, prioritizing getting the first blow in over unsheathing her blade. The sheer force packed behind her Smash Horizon, an advanced ability known for its stupendous horizontal knockback distance, was enough to send the creature flying straight into the other side of the not-so small room.

「Buster shot!」

Just as it was about to get back up on its feet, it was greeted with yet another knockback that sent it on a collision course with a wall, with which it would get intimate with through having its limbs securely nailed to it thanks to some well-timed follow-through shots. Makoto cut off its hands and chopped them up into fine pieces. Just as Mio was about to set the things on fire, she had a premonition that made her promptly stop in her tracks and move out of the way. It proved to be correct as at the very same moment the remnants of what were once hands had merged back together only to launch themselves towards Mio’s original location, exploding upon reaching the destination.

「Well, no one said this was going to be easy.」

「If only it was kind enough to be a little more conventional with its unpredictability.」

Judging from the scale of the blast it wouldn’t have done all that much damage even if it had hit her directly but it was better to be safe than and not eat the brunt of an attack that carries the possibility of infecting its targets when it’s not disadvantageous to do so.

「Eh?」

Just as Mio had submerged herself deep in thought, reconsidering their game plan now that it was all to clear their initial one had fallen flat on its face, she happened to take notice of something completely out of left field, dragging her right back to reality.

「Mako, watch your feet!」

The time lag between the newly acquired piece of information being fully processed and then vocalized in the form of a warning call was no longer than a split second. Makoto didn’t take her sweet time mulling over the specifics as she sprung towards Mio’s general direction without a moment’s thought.

「Woah.」

「Yeesh.」

The attack was so underhanded that the two’s immediate reactions were limited to exclamations. However, there wasn’t any time to dwell on the matter as its rain of attacks had yet to die down.

「I don’t care even if it’ll do no damage just keep trying to scorch it, I’ll try to divert its attention as best as I can!」

「Alright!」

Mio, in accordance to Makoto’s suggestions, began putting pressure on the slime mold by casting everyday-use ignition magic. Although it was only as potent as any old match or lighter it’s flame was magically imbued and, as such, much more effective than the torch Makoto was taking pot shots at the creature with.

「Mako, it’s working!」

「Gotcha. Unless we can come up with any better alternatives we’re running with attrition warfare for now.」

If it works, it works, no point in discarding a perfectly viable strategy, when squeezing it to the limit will result in victory, even if it would take as long as for Hiroshi to down Doul in a one v one with a wooden practice sword, using only basic attacks. The one saving grace was that the fully burnt through areas would at least cease regenerating for good.

「Well, this isn’t looking good!」

Makoto shouted out upon realizing that the creature was cornering them noticeably faster than they were able to whittle it down. Although the burnt areas would cease regenerating, the remaining areas would keep continuously expanding. This meant that, although they had the resources to finish it off eventually, dealing with the creatures increasingly intense barrage of attacks would prove to be close to an impossible endeavor.

「Not much I can do about that.」

「All’s good. Actually, come to think of it, do we have any items that’ll get us get out of this mess!?」

「Can’t think of any on the spot, would you mind being more specific?」

「Like, say, a firestone!」

Makoto shouted out the novice level item’s name in an epiphany, while keeping the slime mold at bay with her sheathed sword in one hand and torch in the other. This took Mio aback as the item’s, which she had gotten to intimately acquaint herself with through the process of teaching the crafting ropes to all of the newcomers, very existence had completely slipped her mind,

「We’ve got more than enough!」

「Make it rain, girl! I’d do it myself but I’ve got my hands full right now!」

「Alright!」

She began combing through the non-warehoused consumable section of the bag, rounding up as many as she could find. She then flung them into the air, making sure none of their explosive radius intersects with Makoto, and set them off all at once.

「Attagirl!」

「It’s working!」

The effectiveness was plain to see – the slime mold that had, just moments ago, completely cornered them, were now bubbling in flames. This barrage of close to a hundred fire stones was enough to thin out eighty percent of the parasitic fungi but it wasn’t quite enough to completely lay waste to them.

「Do we got any left over!?」

「We’re out!」

「We were *this* close!」

While they did technically succeed in turning the tides the remaining twenty percent had already begun the reproduction process all over again and some of that percent was partially composed from slime mold that had cheated death by squirming their way up to the ceiling, leaving the two in a terrible strategic position.

(There has to be something we can use, there just has to!)

Since one of the least powerful items proved to be perfectly effective, there must be something else that can achieve a similar effect. What if we were to say, light up some magically imbued oil or alcohol, would that do the trick?

「Mako the slime mold it’s-」

「I know, I know.」

Just as a brilliant idea had dinged in her mind, the remaining congregation of parasitic fungi had begun piling on top of one another, forming a giant mushroom.

「Just because they’ve formed one big entity that doesn’t mean physical attacks are going to be any less ineffective!」

「Most likely.」

「Buy me some time, I’ve got an idea.」

「Will do!」

Mio, realizing that the end was in sight, responded with an excited quiver in her voice while nocking a bunch of magically ignited arrows.

「Arrow volley!」

The barrage of arrows encircled the mushroom monstrosity in a circle of scorching flames that, while not all that damaging, effectively stunned the thing for a few good seconds due to its natural aversion to fire.

「The pure, untainted girleen inside of me is begging me to reconsider what I’m about to do.」

Those few precious seconds were not wasted as Makoto pulled out a consecrated bottle of dwarf slaughterer that was once to serve as a tribute to the gods.

「Alas poor yorick, I knew you well.」

Makoto, with bottle in hand, made sure to check if the torch in her other hand was still breathing, turned towards the mushroom monstrosity and stared it down with a glint in her eye.

「May your honorable sacrifice not be in vain!」

She pronounced with a renewed vigor in her voice right before filling her oral cavity with sake to its maximum capacity. The sake, which would ignite from merely being in close proximity to a fire source, sloshed around in her mouth, letting the taste spread to the farthest reaches. She dumped out whatever was left in the bottle and brought the torch to mouth level, all while ignoring the overwhelming temptation to gulp down the sake. Making sure to spray and not spit it out she unleashes the contents of her mouth in one fell swoop.

「Mako, I don’t mean to say this but isn’t that going a little… too far?」

Makoto’s vocal admission of guilt in having effectively shafted whatever dregs of ladylike dignity remained inside of her wasn’t enough to deter Mio from finding the whole act to be unsettling. The giant mushroom monstrosity was promptly enveloped in an impressive showing of flames, as would be expected from a sake that’s almost one hundred percent alcohol content.

As Mio stared on in a detached state of mind the creature would be quickly reduced to ash. Although her subconscious need to get sloshed almost reared its ugly head due to the fragrant smell that had impregnated the room, she succeeded in showing it right back down.

「Well, now that that’s over with, let’s scrape together whatever we can find and keep moving.」

「Sounds like a plan. What is this used for?」

「You’re better off asking sensei.」

If there was anyone who could, despite all the odds, find a use for any old piece of junk it was Hiroshi.

「How much are we planning to shoulder?」

「I think we could fit that entire thing in there.」

The two had gone back to their natural, relaxed states as though they hadn’t just barely scraped by back there by the skin of their teeth.

Meanwhile, Hiroshi and Artiem, who have yet to get caught up in any boss encounter.

「Oh boyo.」

「I’m feeling a bit queasy.」

「Welp, ’tis a boss room after all.」

The two voiced their immediate impressions coming upon a room with a miasma density as thick as the one exuded by Balador’s final form.

「This one’s going to be a lot stronger than that giant salamander we just downed, isn’t it?」

「I don’t see how it wouldn’t.」

An uncomfortable reality gradually set in as the two carried on with their conversation. The creature they had just namedropped was a boss in its own right who’s regenerative abilities essentially functioned as a mini dps check, one which Hiroshi cleared with flying colors through the use of his signature smash n’ smite combo that fractured its neck bones right before delivering a fatal blow to the head, splattering its brain into a million little pieces. All of this in the span of mere seconds. As a dps check it wasn’t too challenging since it had low hp and resist values which is what made the encounter play out the way that it did.

At first Hiroshi tried aiming for one of its limbs, which he cleanly hacked off. The creature didn’t even try to hide its regenerative ability as it grew back in an instant right in front of their eyes, which is what got him to resort to his highest damage single target ability combo. If he had still been using a hatchet and hadn’t acquired smite it had a very real possibility of cheesing the entire encounter by just whittling them down, slowly but surely, but alas.

「Instead a makin’ any hasty calls, how ’bout we wait for the rest of our party to catch up?」

「Sounds like a plan.」

「’Member that limb I hacked off earlier? How’d you feel about giving that a shot?」

「Just a bite.」

It was around three pm – the perfect time for a light snack. Having been in a constant state of motion for quite some time now, they were feeling a bit peckish, so they went ahead and feasted on what most wouldn’t even consider food, by any stretch of the imagination, without much qualms.