CH 144

As it turns out, conquering the boss room takes us less than ten minutes.

Once the light settles, we see a group of goblins surrounding a goblin king.

The number of goblins around the boss is random. Sometimes you get a lot, sometimes not so much.

Once these goblins are taken down, they don’t get up again. Maybe it’s different depending on how much time you spend here, I don’t know.

We’re facing fifty of them, and I don’t feel like breaking down and explaining every single one of them.

“Are you really going to fight alone?”

Asks Mia, sounding concerned.

That’s something I asked last night, because I want to test myself.

We’re away from other peoples’ eyes, so I can test the efficiency of my gun too. No, it’s definitely not because I’m stressed and I want to vent.

I tell Mia not to worry, and walk towards the goblins.

I guess that puts me in their battle area, because they all ready their weapons at the same time.

That’s where I activate a skill. I actually learned it before we entered the dungeon, and I’ve been using it while we explore, and used it on those adventurers before.

Skill ‘Intimidate’. Effect, ‘dulls the movement of those weaker than the user’.

It becomes stronger as it levels up. It doesn’t really work on people with higher levels or superior species, but it has a noticeable effect on those weaker. I can also pick if I want to use it on a single target or multiple targets, but using it on multiple targets lessens its effect.

But how does it decide if my level is higher or lower than my opponents’ if I don’t have a level?

I use it on all the goblins in this room, and they all stop. Their movements are visibly duller, except for the goblin king’s.

I get ready to use magic, and chant two spells.

‘Fire storm’ and ‘Tornado’.

I have to chant them inside my head to activate them at the same time. I can do it with Parallel Thinking, but unfortunately I only have one mouth, so I can only vocally chant one at a time.

The two spells are activated, combine in the middle of the group of goblins, and burn a larger area than I was expecting.

The hand of fire spreads out from that center point, and burns with crimson flames. This powerful tempest of flames incinerates every goblin except the goblin king.

“I guess despite everything, it’s still a superior species. This would all be pointless if it wasn’t stronger.”

Black smoke is rising from the goblin king, and I slowly walk towards it with my gun ready. This fifth generation gun is the exact same as the fourth generation one, except for its durability. But the bullets are different, because I attached all sorts of effects to them.

This time I’m using bullets with the fire effect. These ones don’t burn on impact, they explode. Like a bomb being shot out of a gun.

I think they’re the most useful bullets I have, but they’re probably going to ruin materials.

I fire, and it reacts by using its sword like a shield to block, because there’s a good bit of distance between us. Actually, I think it was trying to deflect the bullet, but it exploded in flames. It stumbles at first, but it lowers its center of gravity before I fire the next one, and manages to hold.

I’m surprised it withstood that.

I guess while it’s easy for me to use a gun, superior species can also easily evade and guard against them.

The orclord used its sword to deflect them too.

That’s why I worked more on these bullets, but I’m happy about this anyway. The whole reason why I’m fighting is to test their effectiveness.

I slowly walk forward while firing, mostly at the torso, but also at the limbs.

Not firing at the same spot means the monster is slow to react, and gets hit more.

Being closer helps too. It might be hard to hit unless I’m relatively close.

I’m really having trouble figuring out the right time to bring this weapon out.

The closer I get, the more one sided this gets. At a certain point the goblin king can’t even move anymore.

Part of the reason why I moved forward was also to put some distance between me and the other three.

The king is glaring at me with hatred in its eyes, but there’s nothing it can do.

I use Intimidate, and its movements become duller for just a moment, but that’s a fatal opening in the face of a gun.

Arm, leg, and torso all get shot one after the other. Its sword cracks, and will probably break after a couple more shots.

An explosion causes some of its flesh to burst, looking like something took a bite out of it.

The king’s face twists in pain. It’s looking weak, or rather, panicked.

The next bullet breaks the sword and its leg, and the king falls to its knees.

I make magic energy flow in my body and accelerate, and then as the king lowers its head, I unsheathe my sword and aim for its neck. The sword with magic energy infused cuts through it without any resistance, and the goblin king’s head is easily sliced off.

I was going to keep pushing it with bullets until the end, but I also wanted to check how my body moved, so I decided to finish it with the sword.

There’s also the fact that I want its magic stone, which would have been broken if I kept firing like that.

That didn’t take long. And I’ve been wounded a lot when fighting superior species, but this one was a piece of cake.

“That was great, master.”

As I savor my victory and bask in its afterglow, I suffer an attack by Hikari.

Hey, that hurts. Watch your head.

“I know the battle’s over, but don’t just come running and clinging to me like that. It’s dangerous.”

“Yes.”

I pat her head. I get that she’s excited.

“Master, what absurd weapon…”

“It’s a replica of something that exists in my world, Sera.”

“You say there’s no magic or anything like that there, but your world is looking pretty disturbed too.”

It’s not like everyone carries one, but I don’t think they would understand even if I tried to explain.

“You’re absurd, Sora. And if you have that kind of power, then…”

“There’s a lot of people I can help, right?”

I get what Mia is saying.

“But it stands out too much, and there will probably be people plotting to get their hands on it if they see it. I don’t really want to use it unless I have to. Not to mention that I don’t want to rely on it too much and become complacent.”

“I get how you feel. It might make things easier, but it will stop you from improving in other ways. And that speed… We can talk about that later, how about we check the treasure chest first?”

Says Sera. She’s right, I’m curious about the treasure chest the boss dropped too.

It’s kind of exciting, but Hikari just steps forward and opens it like it’s no big deal.

Well, it’s not like it changes anything, I just wanted to hold on to this expectant feeling for a bit longer. But I get it, it’s a waste of time.

There’s two things in the chest. Oh… a return stone. And this is… Mithril!

I take the goblin king’s head, as proof that I defeated it I guess, and take the magic stone before we leave the room. Its body is in a terrible state, so we leave it there.

We register with the device, and go back. This thing feels less like a fantastical item and more like I’m operating a touch screen.

That takes care of our first boss battle, and our second dungeon exploration comes to an end.