Volume 2 - CH 16

The corpse of the Death Armed started to evaporate, slowly going see-through, then finally disappeared completely.

I let out a sigh of relief and raised my sword in front of my face.

“[Relentless Vigor….release.]”

The red and bluish-white lights that covered my body disappeared.

I could feel the Defense seep back into my body.

“W-we really managed to defeat it, Elma-san! Even when it was so much higher level than us….! T-the experience points we got are something else too!”

Luce hurried over to me.

“I would like to refrain from taking a gamble like this in general, if at all possible.”

I replied with a bitter smile.

“Eheheh…..I really didn’t know what was going to happen when that centipede got back up and even got that burly armor too. But winning even despite that, as expected of Elma-san!”

“….no, that was my bad, really. That Evolution really shouldn’t have happened here.”

I scratched my brows, feeling awkward.

We only managed to win thanks mainly to Luce’s efforts.

Some of the things I asked of her were pretty crazy.

Though I thought she could handle it after how she did in the Embryo fight.

“N-no, I didn’t say it to try to blame you for it, really! Adventurers aren’t people that always look for the safest path anyway!”

Luce started gesturing wildly with her hands to get her point across.

“T-that reminds me! That last hit was amazingly powerful! That huge Death Armed got done in just like that!”

Maybe she was trying to be considerate, so she changed the topic right away.

“[Relentless Vigor] is really powerful, but the risks are….”

The Heavy Knight’s [Relentless Vigor] is powerful, but the Defense decrease is quite painful.

The continuous MP consumption, the momentary vulnerability when activating or deactivating it, the strict conditions for its activation, and the decrease in Defense while it’s in effect together come out to a pretty severe shortcoming.

Since my HP was below 20% to begin with any damage taken would’ve been serious just the same, but being aware that a simple stray projectile could kill me in one hit is not at all good for the heart.

Even the [Life Shield] I depended on was taken down, so a single mistake could’ve spelled an end to my life.

“I could only use it because you managed to stun it, Luce. It’s not a Skill that I would like to proactively use with my current Status, if I can avoid it. However, it can do an absurd amount of damage, so it might be good for bluffing at least.”

With both [Half-Dead Savage Dragon] and [Relentless Vigor] active, my Attack rises to approximately six times its original value.

It may work as an intimidation trick too.

【You have gained the Title 〈Nightmare Slayer〉.】

I received a Title.

“Nightmare Slayer…..? This Title is….”

It seems Luce got it too.

I opened my Status to check it.

――――――――――――――――――――

A special boss Title.

Despite the fact that we got caught up in something troublesome, being able to get this one here was a good thing, since it’s related to Evolution and it’s not easy to deliberately obtain it at all.

In Magic World to become powerful, aside from keeping up the steady accumulation of experience points in general, it was necessary to take some opportunities to defeat much higher level opponents.

A Title that helps with enemies like that is more than welcome.

“Well….it’s good to be happy about the fact that we came out of that fine, but we should be picking up the magic stone too.”

A Dungeon that lost its Lord will soon begin to crumble.

We should take the things we can take before that.

“It’s a 【Lv：75】 magic stone too. It should be at least 4 million gold.”

“F-four million gold!? A single magic stone!?”

Luce raised her voice in surprise.

It’s because it was a monster that we ordinarily would never have the opportunity to take on in our level range.

The Mythril Golem we pushed ourselves to the limit with was 【Lv：55】, and the Dream Lord of the Centipede Pit that we only decided to take on because we knew how to cleanly take it down was 【Lv：60】.

And the last one….the Death Armed was a terrifying 【Lv：75】.

The rewards for it should be immense, just as the experience points were.

Luce and I approached the remains of the Death Armed and started searching for the magic stone since its body was really big.

“Oh….here it is.”

I picked up the Death Armed’s earth attribute magic stone.

I managed to collect our target.

It’s strange to think that we will get 4 million gold from this, just like that.

Right at that moment everything shook, then large cracks started appearing on the Dungeon’s floor and walls.

Those are the signs that the Dungeon is about to disappear.

“E-Elma-san! This….uhm, here! There was something here too! Uhm, it’s something really amazing!”

Luce was running straight at me.

“What is it, Luce? I’ve already found the magic sto-”

Luce held up the object in her hands.

It was a knife. It had a purple colored blade, shining with a mysterious light.

“A-a drop item from the Death Armed!”

A-another one….

Luce really tends to gather all the items that don’t really have high drop rates like it’s nothing.

――――――――――――――――――――

〈Venomous Centipede’s Short Sword〉《Recommended Level: 70》

【Attack:＋28】

Venomous Centipede’s Short Sword….an item that’s heads above all other items we managed to get so far in value.

Its performance was impressive too.

Managing to collect the drop item from an Evolved Dream Lord, as expected of Luce.

The chances of such bonus abilities triggering are influenced by Luck.

It depends on compatibility in each case, but if you can get the poison effect to trigger more or less consistently, then it widens the breadth of usable tactics.

She can increase the probability of the poison triggering with [Stun Barrage] too, so it’s fairly synergistic with Luce as well.

“Although its Recommended Level is a bit high, but….. this means that now we got this, we didn’t really need to collect all those metals.”

I muttered under my breath with a wry smile.

I will need some equipment made for me too, but it seems we will have quite a bit left over like this.

We might end up selling most of it.

“W-what should we do, Elma-san! T-this is worth 28 million gold! It’s much more expensive than even that Rana’s Radiant Ornate Sword….! I-If we bring this back we will get smote by the heavens, right!? It’s just not right, having something so expensive with us….! S-shouldn’t we leave it here instead!?”

“Calm down, Luce! Be calm! You are panicking!”

I tried to persuade Luce in a hurry.

While she was creating a commotion, the breakdown of the Dungeon continued.

The broken remains of the boulders started to go see-through, then a white light enveloped both the ceiling and the walls.