Chapter 69

Chapter 69

Second Floor, Landscape Realm.

In order to properly enter the Third Floor, we came to the place where the Second Floor’s Floor Boss was located.

The members were Persica and me.

I had considered including Jin Sohwi as well, but according to his family’s rules, he could only enter the Dungeon after reaching adulthood, so he could not come with us.

Apparently, his birthday was still a few months away.

‘It would have been nice if we could have brought Lavina, at least.’

Even if we had never coordinated before, a Priest was high-class manpower.

Persica had cautiously suggested it, but she was told no.

The reason was that Lavina had already overexerted herself by reaching 2-Star this time, and 3-Star was absolutely impossible.

Thanks to that, the journey to the Third Floor became one for just the two of us.

In any case, I was already overpowered by myself, so there was no need to increase the number of members and split the rewards for no reason.

Above all, the boss on the way to the Third Floor was easy enough for me to handle alone.

“You are sure that new Armor you changed into is all right?”

“Of course.”

For this Dungeon trip, I had also replaced my Armor.

I had bought it with the card Robert had given me, and it was an Armor set capable of covering up to the Fourth Floor.

It was Leather Armor that emphasized mobility, did not tear easily against blades, and was highly resistant to contamination.

Altogether, it had cost 1.5 million Rune.

“Hmm…… But is 1.5 million Rune not too modest? If it was Father’s card, you could have spent more.”

“Hm?”

“If it were me, I would have charged at least 10 million Rune.”

“…….”

“Well, if you chose it, you must have your reasons.”

……No, I had thought this was already plenty expensive when I bought it.

1.5 million Rune was money comparable to the reward from the White Cloud Castle request.

‘The financial sense of Nobles…….’

Then again, when I thought about it, her Armor was indeed beautiful in every piece.

Persica’s Leather Armor was made from Wyvern leather woven with the thread of a human-faced spider, and it was excellent in both mobility and defense, while also increasing Magic Resistance and Attribute Resistance at the same time.

As a bonus, it required no special maintenance or washing.

If one measured only by price, it was a high-class product that easily exceeded 20 million Rune per set.

“Still, next time, buy something reasonably expensive. Father’s pride was probably hurt a little this time.”

“……I will.”

As we walked while talking about this and that, we arrived before the Boss Room.

However, people had already gathered in front of the Boss Room.

There were five or six men and women, and except for one Adventurer who seemed to be a Tank, all of them were Mages.

They had been lying on the ground with large and small injuries, but the moment they saw us, they sprang up from where they were.

“P-People!”

“Please help us!”

What was this? A trap?

For now, I remained alert and touched my sword, but Ishara stayed quiet without any particular reaction.

At the very least, it meant they held no hostility.

“What should we do?”

“Let us hear the situation first. Do not let down your guard.”

As we approached while staying wary, one of the Mages crawled toward us.

His expression was quite urgent and desperate.

“W-We are not enemies! My lady!”

“……?”

My lady? No matter how one looked at it, he was calling Persica.

The man who had drawn near wiped the soot from his face.

“Bernard?”

“Yes…… It is me. It has been a while.”

He bowed his head.

Bernard Cellone.

He was a 4-Star Mage affiliated with Capella, and someone who had participated as a Party Member when we caught the First Floor’s Floor Boss before.

He was the Mage who had left a rather deep impression on me by erasing his own memories and fleeing, saying that he did not want to get involved with me anymore.

“Why are you here?”

“That is……”

He scratched his disheveled hair and explained what had happened so far.

“We ran out of samples needed for research, you see. I came here to obtain them personally.”

He had come to the Guardian’s Room to obtain materials dropped by the Second Floor’s Floor Boss.

In other words, he had come to clear the boss.

From the Second Floor onward, one did not need to apply for each subjugation, so that itself was not a problem, but……

‘They challenged the boss with this lineup?’

Bernard’s Expedition consisted of six people.

And all of them were Mages.

“You challenged the boss with only Mages and no frontline? Were you trying to put on a group suicide show?”

“I thought it was a plan with considerable possibility.”

Possibility, my foot.

To defeat the Second Floor boss without a frontline, one had to either fully understand the strategy or possess 6-Star combat power.

A Floor Boss was not called a Floor Boss for nothing.

In reality, except for one of the six, all of them were covered in wounds and reduced to rags.

‘That person must have kept them alive and brought them out.’

A Mage wrapped head to toe in a Robe.

That person was probably the highest-ranked Mage among them.

Had they fought while trusting that person?

Even so, they were terribly reckless people.

“Sigh…… Did anyone die?”

“Fortunately, no.”

At the words that there had been no deaths, Persica shook her head.

For now, we gave emergency treatment to those with severe injuries first.

“You said you do not have money for treatment, so I will bill you for the medicine later. And we intend to clear the boss from now on.”

Persica stepped forward with a peculiar smile.

Ah, I knew that expression.

That was the face Persica made when she was running calculations in her head.

“If you follow us, we are willing to not only subjugate the boss, but also sell you the materials that come from it.”

“Is, is that true?”

“Have you ever seen me lie?”

At that, cheers rose here and there.

Persica instantly succeeded in saddling the five Mages with protection fees, treatment fees, and material costs all at once.

She was so thorough that she even made them write promissory notes.

“You are rich, so why do you act like this?”

“What are you talking about? The more profit you maximize, the better. That is the basics of being an Adventurer.”

Persica instead scolded me as if asking what nonsense I was saying.

So she spent decisively when she had to and earned decisively when she had to.

How sharp……

A short while later, after finishing what was practically a slave contract with the Mages, we entered the Second Floor’s Boss Room.

If the First Floor’s Boss Room had taken the form of a Colosseum, this place was like a landscape painting where forest, rocks, and a narrow stream harmonized.

Persica approached the Summoning Stone Monument at the center of the Boss Room.

“You are doing that again this time, right?”

“Yeah.”

Strengthening the reward through the Engraving Stone.

The reason we had chosen this Boss Room was also because this was the Boss Room where an Engraving Stone appeared.

At the same time I retrieved the Engraving Stone, she poured Mana into the stone monument.

Wooooong!

The stone monument emitted light and vanished, and a large silver toad broke through the ground and rose up.

—GRRRRK!

Silver Toad.

As the Floor Boss of the Second Floor, its grade was an impressive 4-Star.

It had a body the size of a house and good mobility, and once its Health fell below half, it launched various wide-area Attribute Attacks such as poison and fire.

Because of that, this fellow was notorious as the final newbie-killer of the Second Floor.

[Hm…… I did not expect that fellow to be here.]

‘Do you know it?’

[It was the one causing havoc on the Second Floor seven hundred years ago. After Jin Ryeon and I beat it soundly, I wondered where it had gone. So it was here.]

That was a story I had never heard before.

My ears perked up at the Secret History from seven hundred years ago that Hyeollyeo told me.

For some reason, the old stories she told were always interesting.

‘But what are the conditions for becoming a boss?’

Watchman Vormir, who had handed me the Engraving Stone, must surely have been someone who had truly existed in the past.

And judging by Hyeollyeo’s words, this toad also seemed to have truly existed.

Each floor had several types of bosses, but what were the conditions under which they were born?

Perhaps that, too, was related to Masters……

“Everyone, stay back. I will deal with that.”

For now, subjugating the boss came first.

I moved Persica and the Mages behind me.

“Wait! You intend to face that alone…… and you are even an Apprentice. That is suicide.”

However, the robed Mage, who had been silent until now, stepped forward.

Even the Mages behind him were nervously nodding.

Just as I was about to turn around, wondering whether I had to explain this again, Persica and Bernard stepped in.

“When he acts like that, just leave him be.”

“When that man acts like that, just leave him alone.”

The two people who had experienced what kind of person I was instead stopped the others.

They knew I was not doing this out of groundless confidence.

“What……”

Leaving behind the bewildered people.

Just as they said, I had not stepped forward alone out of foolish bravado.

This fellow was a boss with extremely troublesome patterns if fought through orthodox methods, but if one used tricks properly, it was truly easy to defeat.

‘Left foreleg, right foreleg, then jump headbutt.’

Mm. Just as I knew.

I dodged step by step while inducing the pattern I wanted.

Depending on where and how one dodged, one could decide the next pattern to a certain extent.

Then came the pattern where it tilted its head backward.

The Tongue Strike Pattern.

CLANG!

I activated Parrying in time with the tongue that shot out rapidly.

A violet flash deflected the tongue, and at the same time, the toad staggered far backward.

“Good. Let us keep going like this.”

CLANG! CLANG-CLANG! BOOM!

After that, it was a repetition of evasion and Parrying.

Silver Toad used wide-area patterns once its Health fell below half, but conversely, before that, it used only simple close-combat patterns.

In other words, it was perfect to handle with Parrying.

—GRRRRK!

At that point, the fellow looked toward the people behind me.

It intended to ignore me and attack the others first, but I had no intention of leaving it alone.

“Where do you think you are going?”

All of its intentions were blocked by my sword strikes.

I knew all of its patterns inside and out, and although my rank was only Early-Stage 3-Star, my combat power was 5-Star.

Because it was a complete overpower situation, that toad had no way to deal with me.

—GRRRK! GRRK!

I continued inducing only the Tongue Strike Pattern and Parrying it repeatedly.

That way, the fellow would be pushed far backward.

After driving it into the rocky area in the corner of the Boss Room, I calculated the direction and prepared the final Parrying.

The moment I lightly knocked away the tongue that shot out and the fellow teetered backward—

—GRRRRK!?

The massive toad’s body slipped perfectly between the rocks behind it.

Anyone could see that its body had become wedged in a space too narrow for it.

As if it had broken down, it struggled desperately and stopped attacking.

“Parking successful.”

It always worked.

This was the Glitch Point.

It was like the monster version of a Wall-Clipping Bug. If one drove it into this exact point, its body got stuck in the map, and it could no longer do anything.

It became a punching bag that could neither attack nor flee.

“I am not even surprised anymore.”

“No, what in the world is that……”

Persica smiled faintly as if there was no helping me, and Bernard shook his head.

As for the rest, every one of them stared with eyes so wide they looked as if they might pop out.

“Th-That could be defeated that easily?”

“What exactly were we doing……?”

After that, there was nothing special.

I activated the Engraving Stone on the fellow that could not move, then sliced it apart with Sword Aura.

The Second Floor’s Boss Battle ended just like that.

***

Unlike Vormir on the First Floor, the Second Floor boss did not have any special reward.

It did not give me a Fragment, and it did not suddenly regain its reason and speak to me.

‘Was Vormir simply special?’

Then what had made him special?

While I was lost in those ambiguous thoughts, the others were busily dividing the samples obtained as rewards.

“It will be divided fairly into five parts.”

“Quickly! Please give it to me quickly!”

Bernard and the other Mages quickly placed the materials Persica gave them into Subspace.

The material was Silver Toad’s Blood.

This fellow’s blood was used as an ingredient in High-Grade Catalysts.

I approached Bernard and said,

“Why are you gathering this? High-Grade Catalysts are not used that frequently, are they?”

“……I did not know you were knowledgeable in Magic as well.”

Bernard, who had somehow already put a Cigarette between his lips, answered as if surprised.

“Is it not obvious? When the Competition approaches, these things sell out, and you cannot get them.”

Ah, so he was a victim of the Capella Competition.

Since people gathered from every direction for the Competition, Magic Goods often suffered shortages.

“Are you participating in the Competition?”

“No. Even if someone like me participated, I would only be a stepping stone. I am just going to quietly do my research.”

He grumbled, saying that because of the shortage, he could not obtain research materials, and exhaled smoke.

But did he really have to blow the smoke toward me?

“Cough, cough……”

SHING!

“Ugh!”

The moment I coughed, my sword was drawn and cut Bernard’s Cigarette in two.

I returned the angry Ishara to her Scabbard and said,

“I did not know the Competition was that popular.”

“Of course it is. The prizes are one thing, but…… there is also the ‘rumor.’”

“A rumor?”

Was there something like that?

When I asked back, he scratched his head.

“What was it again…… Ah.”

After thinking for a long while, he clapped his hand.

“There exists a ‘True Trial’ in the Competition, apart from the two trials…… I think that was it.”

“A True Trial?”

“Yeah. The reward was a little absurd……”

Was there something like that?

When I tilted my head, Bernard added with a face that showed even he only half-believed it.

“If one passes the ‘True Trial,’ they can become the master of Capella Observatory.”

***

Third Floor, Capella Observatory.

At the highest point of that place, a man was looking at a single Staff hanging on the wall.

“The Competition will begin soon.”

A middle-aged man dressed neatly in a suit.

Panini Roche, the Master of Capella Observatory, let out a quiet sigh.

“I wonder whether the ‘master’ will appear this time……”

Long ago, the Mage who founded the Observatory left behind such words.

When the one chosen by the “Star Magic” she had created appeared, that person would become the master of Capella.

It was not a statement that specified anyone in particular, but he knew who the subject was.

After all, there was only one person in the world whom she had honored and waited for throughout her life.

“Great Master.”

The legendary being said to have taught countless Possessors.

And the unknown being whom even Capella’s founder had respected as a teacher.

‘Will that being called the Great Master truly come here?’

He shook his head at the utterly absurd possibility.

In the end, this year would likely be the same as all the others.

He eventually sighed and left the room.