162. The Boss Room
「At dungeon’s deepest part?」
『I think so. The boss should be on the other side of these doors.』
A day had passed since Fran and I discussed the terms of her evolution. And since then, we’d finally reached the dungeon’s 20th floor, its deepest depths.
In front of us stood a single door. Its intimidating frame stood at a height of almost ten meters. It had a property that made it deflect magical energies, so we couldn’t really discern as to what was in the room it led to.
We could feel a bit of bloodthirst leak through the door, but, that alone wasn’t enough for us to discern the extent of the boss’ strength. All it told us was that the boss was our foe.
「Dungeon Master inside?」
『Probably. My guess is that the answer is yes, but I don’t really have anything to back it up.』
「I see.」
『The info we have on the boss is all over the place, so I honestly can’t even make a good guess as to what we’ll encounter.』
The eastern dungeon was the type that didn’t have a set boss. Apparently, there were about 15 different bosses. The one that ended up appearing would typically be the one that was best suited to combat the challenging party.
Weaker parties would sometimes be pitted against E ranked bosses, monsters even weaker than the High Ogres that one could encounter on the way to the boss room. More powerful parties would sometimes be faced by boss monsters labeled as C ranked threats. In other words, the bosses could be so powerful that they ended up transcending the dungeon’s rank.
Mages have studied the dungeon and come up with a theory to describe the phenomenon. Said theory states that the precise boss that’d spawn was actually based off of the actions the party took as they made their way through the dungeon.
We did gather ourselves a bit of info on the stronger bosses that the dungeon was known to spawn, just in case.
The number of known C ranked possibilities totaled to 3. There was the Tyrant Saber Toothed Tiger that I’d fought in the past, the Smog Hydra, a six headed monster whose smoke would inflict all sorts of different status conditions, and the Specter Lord, a creature that’d summon and make use of the spirits of the dead.
Erza had fought both of the first two species. Amanda had stated that she fought the last back when she herself was a C ranker. In other words, both cases served to evidence that stronger individuals would end up facing off against stronger enemies.
Dias, on the other hand, seemed to be completely exempted from all combat. His face more or less served as a pass that’d let him get through the dungeon without having to face off against a boss.
I’m pretty curious as to the type of boss we’ll end up having to face off against. We could take it easy if the boss turned out to be rather weak or something, but I’d end up feeling a bit miffed cause that’d mean that we were thought to be weak. That said, I’d really prefer if we weren’t forced to face off against something that was too powerful.
Honestly, I was hoping for a D ranked spawn. That sounded like it’d be the most ideal.
That said though, there wasn’t actually any issue in having a more powerful enemy spawn. Ulmutt’s Eastern dungeon was unique in the sense that its boss room didn’t lock you in.
You could make an escape so long as the boss didn’t kill you instantly. Apparently that was one of the terms of the contract Dias and the Dungeon Master had signed.
We’d even be able to just use Dimension Jump to teleport out so long as there weren’t any magic related restrictions in place too.
I planned to immediately test whether or not we actually could teleport out of the boss room. If so, I figured that we could totally just fight whatever was thrown at us regardless of how powerful it is, cause we’d at least have ourselves a life line.
『Alright, let’s do this.』
「Nn!」
「Woof!」
And so, Fran gave the door a push.
It groaned as it opened and revealed to us the boss room’s contents.
「Ball?」
『Looks like one.』
「Woof?」
The thing that awaited us was exactly what Fran had described. It was… some sort of ball. Its shape was a bit irregular, so you couldn’t really say that it was a perfect sphere or whatever, but it definitely was some sort of ball nonetheless.
Hmm… how do I put this? The boss looked like it was made out of a bunch of huge turtle shells stitched together to form a ball. It actually kind of resembled a gigantic, black pineapple of sorts. Its hard exterior looked to be about 20 meters in diameter.
I honestly couldn’t tell what the hell it was based purely on how it looked, but it seemed pretty strong.
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General Information
Species: Disaster Pill Bug (Insect-type Magic Beast)
Level: 45
HP: 522
MP: 521
STR: 335
VIT: 339
AGI: 412
INT: 101
MGC: 298
DEX: 151
Skills
Air Jump: Lv 5
Harden: Lv 8
Presence Detection: Lv 5
Regeneration: Lv 8
Vibration Strike: Lv 7
Resistance to Mental Abnormalities: Lv 8
Resistance to Abnormal Status Conditions: Lv 8
Rush: Lv 9
Magic Resist: Lv 7
Magic Detection: Lv 5
Magic Emission: Lv 7
Reinforced Carapace
Lightweight Carapace
Hardened Carapace
Reinforced Regeneration
Automatic Mana Regeneration
Weight Boost
Greater Vitality Increase
Description: A pill bug that’s undergone an abnormal evolution. It’s body is covered in a hard shell. Its wings do not allow flight despite it being an insect-type magic beast. Its main method of attack is to charge at its target whilst relying on the weight of its massive body. It can use Magic Emission to suddenly change directions. It is very difficult to inflict damage upon. It is classified as a C ranked threat despite being roughly as powerful as a B ranked threat in combat.
Magic Stone Location: Heart (Center of Body).
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The boss was a top tier C ranked threat, a foe of unquestionable strength.
I honestly wasn’t really sure as to whether or not we’d actually be able to damage the damned thing. It had a whole tonne of resistances and could even regenerate. Luckily, it wasn’t capable of casting any spells, but honestly, its inability to do so was more or less negligible given how powerful its charge could be.
『Fran! Urushi! Let’s go all out!』
We started off with a preemptive strike. That is, all three of us fired off a spell.
『Inferno Burst!』
「Tornado Lance!」
「Grooowl!」
The pillbug moved at a near unbelievable speed and dodged all three spells in a heartbeat by rolling away.
Even just watching the action filled me with a sense of revulsion. There was no start up or anything like it. The pillbug simply went from being stationary to suddenly moving around at a super high speed. My guess was that it’d used its ability to emit Magical Energy.
This battle was one that was impossible for us to win lest we threw away the presumption that heavy things with massive frames were also slow and clunky.
「Enemy attacking.」
『Dodge it!』
The Magic Beast rolled in our direction as it used its Rush skill. This must be how Indi*na Jones felt when whenever he met himself a giant rock. The large black ball gave off an incredible sense of pressure.
「Kuh!」
『Are you okay, Fran!?』
「Nn… Just a scratch.」
『The fact that it’s damaging you just by giving you a little bit of a scratch is one hell of a problem.』
Its high speed attacks were already capable of causing quite a bit of damage on their own. The fact that it had access to Vibration Strike only served to make it even more deadly. You could end up taking a lot of damage just from having it scrape you.
More important was the fact that it had magic resistance. We couldn’t damage it from afar by bombarding it with spells.
『What a pain in the ass!』
「But first powerful enemy in long time.」
『What do you mean?』
「Given chance to become even stronger.」
God damn battle maniac!
But, you know what? I guess that’s in part what makes her so reliable.