CH 385

A day passed since Allen's Army's inauguration ceremony.

Lately they had been hunting Iron Golems since early in the morning until late at night.

When they were done, Allen would carry everyone back to their base, where they would sleep before repeating everything the next day. But today was different.

Today they were going to challenge Gordino, the final boss.

Everyone from Allen's party except for Shea, Luck, and Peromus were there.

Peromus wanted to go together with them to Prostia in the future, so he joined the party.

Meanwhile Peromus' mercenaries had changed their name to Peromus' Security Corps, and they registered as a party in the guild, with Raven as the party leader.

The party members gathered were Allen, Kurena, Cecile, Dogora, Kiel, Sophie, Formar, and Merle.

Shea, Luck, and Peromus were still going through the five A Rank Dungeons, so they did not have the qualifications to enter the S Rank Dungeon yet.

Peromus had a merchant Talent, so even if he managed to meet the requirements for the S Rank Dungeon, it was hard to say whether he would ever be able to challenge the final boss.

(I guess merchants really just stay behind to warm up seats. At least in this world.)

"I don't feel like we have enough people yet. Are you sure this will work?"

Allen was thinking of merchant stereotypes when Cecile spoke to him, her voice sounding unsure.

"I think we can defeat him. And I have placed a [Nest] outside too."

Just in case, he had a Bird A summon place a [Nest] next to the cube device that would take them out of there.

It was impossible to go outside the dungeon from that place.

It seemed like Dungeon Master Digragni had placed a barrier of some sort to impede that.

(Well, I guess there isn't much of an issue.)

But Allen felt like they would manage to defeat Gordino without needing to escape.

"So we can escape if things don't work out, huh. What are we going to do after we run though?"

"Well, I think the hero is pretty bored nowadays, so I'll invite him over."

"What do you even think the hero is?"

"A hero."

"I give up."

Cecile felt a bit strange hearing Allen think of bringing the hero Helmios so easily.

She felt like Allen did not realize the position Helmios held in the Five Continents' Alliance, even after the meeting.

"Okay, let's do this!"

"Yeah."

"Tam-Tam is here too!!"

Kurena and Dogora renewed their spirits while Merle struck a cool pose.

Kiel and Cecile still looked apprehensive, but the muscle heads were excited.

The last time they had joined hands with the hero's party, Admiral Galara's party, and Prince Zew's party, which totaled forty people in total. Now they were just eight.

If they defeated Gordino as a single party, they would obtain all the rewards for themselves.

Not to mention that organizing a big raid would take too much time.

The Demon King's Army's attacks had ceased for now, so Allen felt like the hero Helmios had a lot of free time, but Allen was not free enough to go look for him.

If needed, he could also try recruiting other parties of adventurers, though that would also make the rewards less favorable for Allen. That was the downside of big raids.

Kiel, Sophie, and Formar rode on a Bird B summon, allowing them to move in three dimensional space.

Allen and Cecile were grouped together like usual too.

After the fight against Gushara, Kurena and Dogora had realized they had an easier time by fighting on their own.

At first they also relied on Birds C and B to move around faster, but now that their stats had increased, they felt it was more convenient to move on their own.

They were more comfortable fighting on solid ground, since the enemy was incredibly powerful as well.

"Maybe we you should've practiced a bit first?"

"No, I'll be fine. The grip feels really good, I'm used to it already."

Dogora could not explain it properly, but he felt comfortable using his new axe.

He was using the orichalcum axe Habarak gave him the day before.

It had taken more than a month to complete.

Orichalcum was rather complicated to work with.

Now Dogora had the Divine Artifact Kagutsuchi in one hand, and the orichalcum battleaxe on the other.

Kagutsuchi emitted a lot of internal heat, and its exterior was covered in what looked like glowing red veins.

The sharp edge was not entirely red hot, but this was how much power Freya had recovered.

The people were properly praying to Freya every day.

Honoring his title of Master Craftsman, Habarak had shaped the orichalcum battleaxe according to Dogora's measurements, so it felt like an extension of his body.

Kurena was also holding Basque's orichalcum greatsword.

"Tam-Tam Descend!"

The hihiirokane goliath size golem descended, covered in a scarlet sheen.

Merle was inside ready to fight.

Everyone was far stronger than they were the first time they challenged the S Rank Dungeon's boss.

"Let's get it started then."

Saying that, Allen summoned Merus under Kingship.

A Bronze Golem, two Iron Golems, and a Mythril Golem stood in a line there, each of them around a hundred meters in size, with Gordino in the center of the floor.

It seemed the five golems would not move until they got close enough, just like the last time.

And this also confirmed that even when the boss was defeated once, the same boss would respawn.

'...Oh? It seems you're desperate to die, challenging me with such puny numbers.'

As the party approached the center of the room, Gordino spoke to them like a villain.

"...I guess you don't remember us."

From those words, Allen gleaned that Gordino did not remember them.

A Rank Dungeon bosses had enough intelligence to hold conversations, but they would never remember any past encounters. That seemed to apply here too.

'Now, taste despair, suffering, and the ultimate…'

"Go, Merus!"

Allen wanted to get this over with as soon as possible, so he interrupted Gordino's speech.

'Sure.'

While Gordino was still talking, Merus, his stats numbering 65000, charged in.

Merus seemed to be unique in the sense that Strengthening visited all his stats by 5000.

'Hm?!'

Before Gordino could complain about being interrupted, Merus instantly took one of the Iron Golems a kilometer away, using Bird A's Awakened Skill [Homing Instinct].

There a Kingship Dragon A summon was waiting to beat up the Iron Golem.

The Dragon A summon under Kingship had 25000 Attack points, was 300 meters long, had 15 heads, each with their respective long neck, which quickly wrapped around the Iron Golem, constricting it.

It easily overpowered the Iron Golem, leaving Gordino more exposed.

The 15 heads began to bite into the Iron Golem, whittling away its Strength.

"Good, now they can't retreat back to heal each other."

(Let's get this over with!)

The last time Gordino had retreated to a narrower corridor, but now Allen wanted to defeat him in this large room.

His objective was to obtain the loot drops from Gordino, but his strategy had focused on accomplishing that as fast as possible.

He wanted to defeat it as soon as possible.

'Y-you brat! I'll need to teach you weaklings what true power looks like!!'

"Kurena, Dogora, we don't have too many people and support, so try to not get hit too much!!"

"Got it! I'll take care of the front then!!"

"You got it!!"

Kurena and Dogora charged ahead.

They would focus on the Bronze Golem first.

A hit from a golem was powerful, so Allen told them to focus more on not being defeated themselves rather than defeating the enemy.

The enemy golems, around a hundred meters in size, all had between 20000 or 30000 stats, except for Gordino.

A Bronze Golem's Drill Punch caused around 30000 points of damage, so he warned Kurena and Dogora to be careful not to get hit, and just whittle down the enemy's Strength without taking risks.

"Uryahhh!!!"

Meanwhile Merle in Tam-Tam went to stop the other Iron Golem.

There was very little difference in stats between the Iron Golem and Merle's hihiirokane golem.

Restraining it would stop the Iron Golem from going to help the one under attack by the Dragon A.

"Hayate, Okiyo, Taco, you fight too."

'Yessir!'

'Kekeke, we're killing again today.'

'Willingly, sire!'

The Beast A, Wraith A and Fish A summons under Kingship had stats that rivaled the remaining four enemy golems.

The three summons focused on the Iron Golem.

With those gone, the enemy would no longer be able to regenerate.

Separating the two Iron Golems and defeating them first was the same strategy they employed before.

The Beast A summon was incredibly nimb, and it kept attacking the Iron Golem with its Strengthened Attack.

Then the Wraith A's Special Skill [Spirit Sneak] allowed her to instantly teleport behind the Iron Golem.

Critical hits were much easier to land on the backs of enemies.

Kingship also allowed the Fish A summon to take part in the battle.

Kingship's triplication boost to stats was incredibly useful.

But it was still a mollusk, its Endurance not even reaching to 20000 after Kingship, making it the lowest of the current summons.

Somehow it was resisting multiple hits from the golems though, that was because its Special Skill [Octopus Heart] stopped it from dying so easily.

It had three Octopus Hearts, so that meant it had three lives as well.

Even if two hearts were crushed, it could regenerate all its Strength and Mana before dying, recovering fully.

A crushed heart or two would regenerate after a day too, and Kiel's Extra Skill [God's Drop] could also regenerate one instantly.

Allen had tested that in the past, making Kiel use his Extra Skill on it, but he felt like it was easier to just summon another Fish A if the first one was taken out.

Making sure Kiel kept his Extra Skill available was more important.

'That smarts! Hmph!!'

Even with multiple lives, that did not mean it could not feel pain.

The reason why Allen brought the Fish A summon with his party was because of its Special Skill [Smokescreen.]

It only seemed to work on A Rank monsters, so its usage was limited.

Allen could easily defeat A Rank monsters on his own.

But with Kingship, it also affected a portion of S Rank monsters.

Allen deduced that was due to the Fish A's Intelligence reaching 25000 with Kingship.

[Smokescreen]'s effectiveness varied depending on the difference of Intelligence between the summon and monster.

There were some exceptions of monsters with very low Intelligence that were not affected, but the five golems other than Gordino were affected by it.

Kiel and Sophie were ready to heal any injuries immediately, but that still helped lessen the load on everyone.

'What are you doing, Mythril Golem! It's time to crush the enemy!!'

(He really gets mad when the battle doesn't favor him.)

Gordino began shouting at the Mythril Golem that was flying while attacking the party.

The Mythril Golem had the highest Attack of them, but the least Endurance, so it remained flying in the air to attack safely.

"Rocanels, Absorb everything!"

Allen had been waiting for that. He had a Stone A summon under Kingship ready, as well as three Stone A summons under Command.

No matter how many attacks were flung at them, they did not budge and absorbed everything.

"That's good. Just a bit more and we can take them down!"

"Yeah!"

Allen and Cecile began attacking the Iron Golem.

At the same time, he matched his timing with Merus and the Dragon A summon to defeat the other Iron Golem.

With that, both were defeated simultaneously.

'Y-you bastards, are you really trying to…'

"I think that's about it, Rocanels, counterattack!!"

'''...'''

'Wh-?! GHAH?!'

The four Stone A summons used their Awakened Skill [Convergent Bombardment].

Gordino was unable to resist the damage, even though his body was a hundred meters long, and was flung back from the impact.