CH 270

Episode 270 – Powerlessness

Weak. Way too weak.

I was about to catch up to the [Azure Alliance] in the Dungeon, but compared to the strong, overwhelming figure of Ahmed mowing down all of the enemies that stood before her, my own weakness was painfully apparent.

I had managed to get by somehow thanks to Aruna and Rosalie, but if those two had been just a moment too late, I would have been killed by the Big Desert Mole. I had continued to attack over and over, enduring the suffering that made my body feel like it would fall apart. But with each attack, my confidence fell to pieces, and my heart felt like it would break at my own powerlessness.

“Good work! It was a sudden battle, but we somehow managed to defeat it. Lewin-san, is your body alright?” (Rosalie)

“I can move my body, but the pain is pretty bad. Sorry… I got hit by that sudden blow and ended up putting you two in danger.” (Lewin)

“No, no, there’s no need to apologize! It was just yesterday that I was messing up over and over again, so I can’t blame you! Besides, the moment you landed that blow, I was like ‘yay, we got this!’, and I felt a lot more reassured.” (Rosalie)

In response to my apology, Rosalie tried her best to cheer me up. Just like how I appreciated Aruna’s blunt way of speaking, I was also thankful for Rosalie’s supportiveness. Holding in my apologetic feelings towards the two in my heart, I went to pick up the drops and then made my way back to Aruna’s location.

“I’m really sorry, Aruna-san.” (Lewin)

“Good work out there. Don’t worry about it. Anyway, what do we do now?” Aruna asked, lightly brushing past the apology.

Our current situation was that the Big Desert Mole had followed us down to the 28th layer. Originally, we had planned to take a break at the stairs leading down to the 28th layer before turning back, but… I looked down at my own body.

“Won’t it be tough going back in that condition?” Aruna commented, as if she had seen through my thoughts.

I honestly had no idea how much energy or stamina I had remaining after taking those painful blows from the Big Desert Mole. If we wanted to return, we had to leave the desert area, defeat the Elemental Golem, then go through the canyon area to reach the Safe Area…

“Sorry. I think it’ll be too much for me.” (Lewin)

I honestly laid out the truth, without hiding anything. I didn’t want to deceive them simply out of a desire to not hold them back and then wind up running out of energy midway and causing even more trouble for them.

“Then let’s keep going and defeat the Boss on the 29th layer so that we can make it to the Safe Area on the 30th layer. It’s closer that way.” (Aruna)

“That may be true, but… we haven’t prepared any countermeasures for the Boss on the 29th layer, and it’s stronger than the Big Desert Mole, too. It’s a pretty dangerous choice to make.” (Lewin)

“I know it’s dangerous. But this way is still safer. Are you okay with this, Rosalie?” (Aruna)

“Yes! Actually, I’ve watched quite a few 29th layer Boss fights. It was the Boss of the area I couldn’t clear after all, so I felt somewhat regretful about it. So even though this will be my first time fighting it, I’ll be able to read its attacks to some extent.” (Rosalie)

“Then it’s decided.” (Aruna)

Under Aruna’s initiative, we quickly decided to change plans and head for the 30th layer. I was feeling remorseful and depressed, but continuing to feel this way would only make me hold them back even more. I had to learn to be just like Rosalie―and be able to turn this mental state around so that I could be helpful to them.

“I’m really sorry! I have another request… would it be okay for me to conserve my energy until the 29th layer? I want to be able to put my everything into the Boss fight.” (Lewin)

“Yeah. That was the plan in the first place. We won’t be running into the Big Desert Mole anymore, so go ahead and dedicate your remaining strength to the Boss fight.” (Aruna)

“I don’t mind. I still have some stamina to spare after taking it easy yesterday!” (Rosalie)

“I feel bad, but I’ll leave it to you guys. I’ll support you guys to the best of my ability while preparing countermeasures for the Boss.” (Lewin)

The burden that the two of them would have to bear would definitely be greater, but there were fewer monsters here than in the canyon area; I didn’t foresee these two having any problems with how reliable they were. Also, this choice wasn’t because I was feeling down, but because it was the best possible choice I could make right now. After slapping my cheeks to get myself back into the swing of things, we continued on the 28th layer, into the raging sandstorm.

I stayed behind Aruna, who was using her bow to deal with the attacking monsters, but my mind wasn’t on the monsters in front of us. I was working overtime to think through the information regarding the Boss of the 29th floor, which was a necromancer that could create and control mummies. It was commonly referred to as the Mask Queen.

The necromancer was female, and its outer appearance closely resembled the mummies it controlled, but the mummies it controlled were all male. Also, it wore a strange mask on its face that glittered with strange golden patterns, which had earned it the name “Mask Queen”.

As for the Mask Queen’s physical build, she seemed to be a bit taller than me, at least based on what I had seen on the projections. On the surface, her body appeared to be no different from an ordinary woman’s.

It wasn’t that powerful, and it didn’t use much offensive magic, but… the mummies it created were troublesome in their own right. The mummies were like living beings, but they were by no means alive since they would keep moving unless their heads were crushed. The Mask Queen could also summon different humanoid varieties of the mummies, such as swordsman, martial artist, and sorcerer types, and it could even make non-humanoid ones like dog and bird-type mummies.

A typical method of defeating the Mask Queen was to continue killing the mummies until she ran out of magic power. That meant that a drawn out battle was the best strategy. Of course, the Mask Queen herself wasn’t that strong and didn’t have much stamina; it could be viable to focus on attacking her directly and that would be that. However, once the Mask Queen had reached a certain level of remaining strength, she would sacrifice herself and summon a dragon mummy. And speaking of dragons, the first thing that came to my mind was the Lesser Dragon that I had seen on the projections.

The adventurer party called [Silver Wind Chime] met their end fighting the Lesser Dragon, which was the Boss of the 49th layer. It was an overwhelmingly powerful monster that truly deserved the name ‘ruler of the skies’.

According to what I’d heard, the dragon mummy couldn’t fly or use flame breath, so it fell short of the Lesser Dragon by far. But as a mummy, it possessed high vitality, and, instead of flame breath, it could use a poison breath.

There definitely wouldn’t be any problems if we managed to defeat it before it could summon the dragon mummy, but if we couldn’t, our party would be wiped out for sure. That said, a prolonged battle would be rough for us given our remaining stamina.

We could deal with the mummies until the Mask Queen ran out of magic power, which would make it a long and drawn-out fight. Or, we might have no choice but to take the risk and directly take down the Mask Queen. Considering which risk to take was the key to this Boss fight.

While watching the two of them deal with the monsters of the 28th layer, I desperately racked my brains for a strategy.