CH 205

"Fuhahahaha!!"

"<Counter burst>!"

"Buha!?"

The <Cowboy Cactus>, who protruded it's two hand forward and bombarded with thorns in a semicircular area, vanished in the effect with the counter burst released by Sierra.

The boss let down its guard under the impression that defense skills are ineffective against long range attacks, the range of <Counter Burst> is quite big.

Sierra, who delivered the counter blow at bare distance, basket in the afterglow of victory with a cool face.

"Great work, Sierra. That was a nice decision you have made in the end. Have you gotten used to dealing with long-range attacks?"

"Yeah. And I also grasped when to use <Counter Burst> effectively. I have figured out the range, so it would be more easy to deal next"

Seems like Sierra was quite pleased with her reaction as she shows a rare look of enthusiasm.

Alas, there's something I must inform her about which may break her heart.

"Unfortunately, it's impossible since the flute only have one more use left"

"...... I see. But we can still use the regular boss <Slactuar>, there's still much more to practice"

Sierra's desire to improve herself never ceases to amaze me.

Would I also be so good at fighting if I keep up with training? I should also follow her.

This was the 8th battle after the repetition of blowing the whistle and fighting. Ultimately, the flute only has one uses left and sing it any further will thoroughly break the flute, so our fun boss battle ride was only till there.

What a pity. I want more and more flute!

By the way, we fought 5 times and the rest 3 times were a miss.

It still ended in 3 misses. It's fortunate that we are paying from our pocket, else it would have been hard to procure the profits. We more or less had <Beautifying phenomenon> once but that's all, no gold chest dropped for us, which is slightly tricky profit-wise.

However, the rare boss was like a luxurious banquet in terms of experience. Both Rika and Karua's job has reached Lv31 simultaneously and with this, we have achieved our goal for today.

That being said, we still have a surplus of time left so we are going to continue our grind. The next battles would be with a Regular boss <Slactuar>.

Lana seems like she has something to say but I ignored her. I want to follow after Sierra and train myself.

The time passed quickly and it's nearing 5:00 p.m. in the afternoon, gradually closing to the time for us to go back.

"Fufufー......u... F...u"

Taking its last laugh (?), The 28th <Slactuar> sank into the sea of effect. We couldn't be anymore familiar with this scene.

Although It's earlier than our normal grind time, I think it's the perfect time to pack up from here.

"Shall we end here?"

"Huh, but isn't it a bit early? It's not 5 o'clock yet, I can still go on"

Lana objected after confirming the time in her <School handbook (Smartphone)> but Sierra interjected between and said as if rebuking her.

"I also think we should end our expedition here. We have classes tomorrow and Lana-dono, weren't you told by Ester to come back quickly?"

"Ugh, Fine-Fine. Adieu, dungeon"

Lana, albeit reluctantly, bade her farewell to the dungeon. I felt like I knew this scene from someone. Ah, it was the line I also once said.

Lana has taken quite a liking to dungeons, didn't she?

When we returned to the dungeon gate after we bade our farewell, I heard a commotion despite the scarce presence of people.

Hmm, People seem to be gathering at the gate of one of the beginner-high grade dungeons, <Poisonous Mushroom Cavern Dungeon> for some reason.

"It's quite noisy there, I wonder what happened?"

"Today's the final day for the first year's job appraisal, right? I heard even the upperclassmen are as busy as bee"

Sierra and Lana's interest was also piqued up like me at the crowd.

The reason why there are fewer people in the dungeon entrances than usual is as Lana has said, some of the upperclassmen are participating as helpers in the appraisal.

The students participating in it are actually a lot, since it also reflects in their school record for job hunting. Well, the majority of them are for the quest points though.

However, I assumed the students gathered here are upperclassmen. Because I'm pretty sure only the members of <Eden> among the freshmen should have been able to reach the beginner-high grade dungeon. I am more so sure because almost all the equipment of the people gathered here didn't seem to be something the freshmen could get their hands on. Why are the upperclassmen gathering here in droves I wonder.

I slightly strained my ear to listen.

"Dammit, but I'm not going to give up"

"However, there's not anything we can do either"

"But, that's a whole load of fortune, you know, a whole load!? As long as we can defeat it, if we can take it down...... "

"That's if you can defeat it. Alas, it's not something we, who haven't even reached at the standard of E-rank, can meddle in...... "

"Sigh, what a shit luck"

"Really, why the heck do rare boss have to come now of all time? And here I thought we could finally reach the E-rank"

"What can we do? Let's just ask someone to defeat it. Standing here will not progress our exploration either after all"

"Dammit!! Do we really don't have any other choice!?"

"But both the upperclassmen and third years are all busy and we may not find anyone, so whom are we going to ask then?"

"Haa, we are just unlucky"

"Truly so, we even gave up on the merits and quest points and chose to reserve the dungeon. We couldn't be anymore cursed to have rare boss popped out"

"Is it really the divine punishment for ignoring the freshmen? "

"Haa, what shit luck"

"Youuu, don't you have anything else to say!?"

Hmm-Hmm, so that's how it is. I basically get the gist of their situation.

Apparently, they have skipped out on today's big event and prioritised dungeon exploration. They must have been in a good mood to reserve the dungeon for a day and clear it away. Though I don't quite get what they meant in the later part.

Anyway, the crux of the matter is that in their crucial boss battle, a rare boss appeared.

By the way, once a rare boss appears, it will not disappear until either you defeat it or use a specific item and it will continue to appear. If you're unlucky, then you may also have to stop your exploration like them.

And so, they are in trouble precisely because of this reason.

I see, that means it's a chance for us.

I turned to them by myself.

"Can I take a bit of your time, Senpai?"

"Hmm? Sorry but we are currently busー一...... Huh?"

"Have I seen you somewhere?"

"You morons! T, that, could you be the <Brave> of <Eden>!?"

"Absolutely, the one and only Brave, Zephyr. I saw Senpai seemingly in trouble so I came to check out. How about leaving your problem to us to solve?"

『Sub quest <Subdue the impeding Rare boss> has begun』

• Defeat the rare boss blocking the <Poisonous Mushroom Cavern Dungeon>.

•Reward : A <Gold Chest Selector>.

•Time period : Today.