Chapter 22 – The ‘Arrivers’ Ace
Translator: Mana
“—‘Absolute Shadow’.”
Darkness filled my vision. Only when I landed on the ground did I realise I had been hit. A shadow hovered above my prone body. It was Jin. He had both my arms pinned down.
Jin had my whole body held down like this.
“Let’s call it a day, shall we…”
With those words, Jin released the pressure on my back.
17 battles, 0 wins. That was today’s battle results. I hadn’t been able to avoid even once, much less win a match. As usual, I always fell at Jin’s first attack. I felt sorry for my current situation.
No matter how much I thought and challenged through trial and error, I couldn’t see myself evading Jin’s attack. After the battle, I would just begin to see a tiny sliver of hope at evading before that hope was utterly crushed in the next match. Even so, if I investigated that faint possibility and ultimately bet on that slim prospect, I would only be made to realise that it was all an illusion. These few days have been a repeat of that.
“Yes…” If this is not Binbogami WordPress then it is stolen!
The sun had set, making the figures in my vision blurry outlines. This darkness signalled the end of today’s practice. Struggling any more than this wouldn’t be worth it, so I nodded helplessly.
When I moved my body that was heavy with fatigue to stand up in a single heave, Jin turned and headed down the road back to the party house.
Watching his back, I ruminated in my despair and frustration by myself.
“Will I ever be able to evade that…?”
The shadow of a gust of wind appears in my mind.
A speed impossible to dodge even the first attack of.
That was a given since I couldn’t use evasion arts. But even if I could, I didn’t think I could evade him.
In the first place, since I couldn’t avoid a single blow, I couldn’t even hone any techniques or the sense of evasion. The day ended with nothing to gain, only leaving the taste of the gap between Jin and me in my mouth.
Will there ever be a day I can avoid that attack…?
A bad feeling lingered in my head.
“There’s a trap a few dozen metres ahead of here.”
After checking there were no monsters in the vicinity through ‘Enemy Search’, we proceeded forward. Placing my palm against the spell on the damp ground, I instantly cancelled it with ‘Trap Dismantle’.
With a sigh, I turned back and saw the members of the ‘Arrivers’ walking this way.
“How’s it going? Dismantling the dungeon-generated traps?”
“Well… so far, they’re easier than Erin’s, maybe?”
I answered Jin’s question with a tilt of my head.
The reason why Jin was asking these questions was that of the traps started generating from this sixth floor of the dungeon. In other words, I started dismantling traps generated by the dungeon as of today.
To be honest, ‘Trap Dismantle’ was a little challenging to perform with ‘Stealth’ activated when possible. There were no issues with the effectiveness of my ‘Trap Dismantle’, but my ‘Stealth’ kept releasing itself. In the beginning, my ‘Stealth’ level was so low that for the first few days that monsters kept spotting the other ‘Arrivers’ members like crazy…
“Note… are there any enemies nearby…?”
Neme approached while glancing around nervously. She seemed a little cowardly.
“Why is a priestess scared of the undead… Neme…”
“It’s not that I’m
scared of the undead! I’m scared of ghosts!”
Without missing a beat, she grabbed the cuff of my sleeve. “Now let’s go!” she said, puffing out her non-existent chest. She has been like this ever since she found out I could tell the timing of when undead monsters would appear.
Dungeon of Puriff, sixth floor. This place was a foul-smelling graveyard. An endless expanse of darkness and miasma. With every step taken, the damp dirt clung underfoot and the sound of footsteps against gravestones echoed everywhere.
This floor shrouded in silence spawned undead monsters similar to the atmosphere of this place.
Originally, this would be where priestesses with resistance spells would come in, but since Neme was acting this way Roslia had to lead the battle against the undead as a paladin.
“That’s unfair! Don’t cling to Note so much! I should have done that too!”
Roslia clenched her fist in frustration. When Neme first clung to me, she widened her eyes as if in realisation of a new method of attack.
If only Roslia could focus on clearing the dungeon a little more… Well, at least she’s more use than Neme right now, so I can’t really complain much.
“I’m serious here! Don’t make it sound like I’m playing around like you!”
Neme raised her voice in complaint of Roslia.
Serious… what was so serious about being scared of ghosts…
“You think my feelings for Note are playing around?”
Roslia glowered. Neme also seemed taken aback by her sudden expression.
I beg of you guys, stop making this situation any more complicated…
“I’m sorry. I understand Roslia’s feelings. Neme will give up Note’s arm, so please carry let Neme cling to Roslia’s arm instead!”
With Roslia clinging to my shoulder and Neme clinging to hers, we formed a straight line.
“What are you guys messing around for…” Erin grimaced this way exasperatedly. It was exactly as she said.
What were you messing around for, Roslia and Neme… I really wished they would stop including me amongst the members that messed about. I was dragged into it.
Recently, the atmosphere between the girls in the party had been like this. Erin and Roslia’s relationship remained unchanged, while the relationship between Neme and Roslia seemed to have improved somewhat. They could now engage in some friendly banter. You could say it was a result of the Puriff Beach on the fourth floor. Meaning Jin’s strategy wasn’t a complete miss.
“Roslia, you should be fighting… Otherwise I’ll kick you out of this party…” Erin stated coldly without missing a beat.
Because the girls weren’t getting along much better, I started to think that the problem wasn’t only with Roslia, but with Erin too.
Although Roslia had a notorious reputation and many haters, it wasn’t as if she had low interpersonal skills. In fact, she was rather sociable. I believed the reason why she wasn’t fitting in with this party was simply that she didn’t feel like getting along with anyone other than me.
Erin, on the other hand, was rather forceful in her words and actions. I knew she wasn’t a bad person, but it slightly grated on my nerves nevertheless. Perhaps Roslia felt like Erin’s clear dislike of her was difficult to deal with.
“I’m scared of ghosts~ Note, save me~”
“You were cutting down ghosts left and right until now, right? In the first place, I can’t even fight…”
“Then Force, will you?” In an indifferent tone, she summoned Force with a straight face while holding onto me. My eyes widened in surprise at the sudden difference in her attitude.
“Alright! Leave it to me, Roslia! Let me show you my cool side!”
Force skipped forward enthusiastically as if he had been waiting for Roslia’s request. He was probably excited to be asked for a favour from the girl he was trying to earn good will from. Easy. Too easy.
“I’ll take on any monster that appears! No matter how many come at me, I’ll defeat them!”
I informed the yelling Force of the difficult-to-voice truth. “It seems like the boss’s room is just around that corner…”
Force placed his hand against the thick stone door. His expression was dead serious.
“Are you really going to do this?” Jin voiced his worries.
“There are battles that a man cannot turn his back from. And this is one of them…”
Force’s soul could be felt in those words. It wouldn’t be easy to change his mind.
But even so, I. Couldn’t help it. And just. Accidentally let the words slip out.
“Even if you found yourself right outside the boss room immediately after showing off, isn’t defeating the boss alone a bit too much?”
My concerns were understandable. Since Force was about to try and clear the boss room of the sixth floor alone.
The difficulty of the dungeon jumps every five floors. In other words, this sixth floor is on a different dimension compared to the fifth floor we breezed past yesterday.
On top of that, the awaiting enemies were undead type boss monsters. Apparently, there was a huge skeleton with high self-regenerating abilities and five Liches that excelled in magic.
We only met one Lich on the way here, but I could tell it was a strong enemy at a glance. Extraordinarily fast casting speed, and overwhelming magic power. It was impossible to defeat undead monsters with high defence in a single blow unless you were Roslia, who was effective against those types.
“Shut up, Note!”
Force opened the large stone door. It rumbled loudly. Along with the sound of the door against the floor, it appeared.
Red eyes, piercing from overhead. A pile of bones that covered the ceiling.
The Dungeon of Puriff. Sixth Floor. The boss monster, Skull King Gigand.
The skeleton that boasted a height of ten men was bending over to look down upon us. A foul odour emitted from his mouth, casting a white mist.
“Here goes!”
Footsteps sounded along with a yell. It was Force. He was running straight for the giant skull. The tiles on the ground he passes crack under his feet.
From Force’s advance. However, the enemy isn’t just the giant skull. The Liches fired magic from behind the large skull to hinder his way.
Fire. Lightning. Ice. Wind. Darkness. Explosion from those attacks surrounded his body.
“…!” I could hear myself breathing in sharply. Next to my nervous self, Jin was standing calmly.
“It’s alright. That level of magic won’t be able to hurt Force at all—”
The scenery that followed was exactly as Jin said. Force jumped out of the circle of magic explosions. His momentum had never wavered since the first step he took towards the giant skull.
‘Magic Resistance – Large’…
The existence of that certain skill crossed my mind. It was probably due to this skill that he didn’t receive any magical damage at all.
Suddenly, it attacked. The giant skull seemed to realise that it was bad to let Force approach any further, and swung his right arm out. Its large size had hidden the existence of its arm until this moment.
The right arm that swung out should have grabbed Force for sure. The trajectory of the arm definitely overlapped with his location just now.
The sound of the right arm hitting floor echoed throughout the room.
…As Force continued his advance.
The dismembered arm disintegrated as it hit the wall.
In his right hand was a silver sword. One of the two swords usually around his waist. ‘Kouhaku’. Because I had never seen Force unsheathe the other black scabbard before, this one was probably his main weapon.
The shining silver blade had cut through the right arm of the giant skull that tried to attack.
Like that, Force reached the feet of the giant skull. At this point, it was basically over.
The huge skull couldn’t make small movements due to its size. Perfect prey for Force, who didn’t even stop to bother with the supporting shots from the Lich. He slashed and slashed away.
The regenerating bones couldn’t keep up with the speed that Force cut them away.
The pile of bones shrunk in the blink of an eye and collapsed. That was the end of the Skull King Gigand.