We spend the day after getting back from the dungeon resting, and the next day, go to the reference room before going to the guild’s training area.
Why the training area? Because of what we’re reading about the boss of the tenth floor in the reference materials.
We’ve learned that not a single person has died in that boss room since the creation of those documents.
At first I thought it was because of the safety zone, and because adventurers who made it that far would have had the experience to know when to pull back, but I learn that it’s not as simple as that.
The boss of the tenth floor excels at defense, so challengers have to get through that tough defense to beat it.
Furthermore, this boss doesn’t summon minions, it’s all alone.
The issue is that this boss is tough, and it’s easy to run out the clock without beating it. And if you want to face it again, you have to take down fifty kijin again.
That’s one thing that brings the mortality rate of the tenth floor up, and why a lot of people either decide to make money on the ninth floor instead, or give up on this dungeon altogether.
“But which of us will fight?”
Kijin have pretty much the same physique as people, so only so many people can attack them at once. Especially since magic aside, only Hikari and Guilford can attack from a distance. And those aren’t even their main attacks.
Those attacks worked before, but it felt like it was because that one was weak to long distance attacks. We shouldn’t assume it will work that well on the boss.
The documents say they tried to coordinate close and long range attacks, but were completely shut out.
“Magic doesn’t work?”
I borrow the documents Rick is reading, and see it says magic doesn’t work at all.
Rick frowns, and looks like he’s thinking.
This isn’t unexpected, because magic wasn’t effective against kijin before.
“The time limit for the tenth floor boss is ten hours, right?”
“That much is certain. But Argo…”
“Yes, fighting for ten hours straight isn’t doable. Alone, anyway…”
Guilford and the others nod, picking up on what Argo is saying.
“The problem is the boss’ stamina. If it can last for ten hours, do we even have a means to defeat it?”
Argo proposes that we fight it in shifts, so the boss doesn’t have a chance to rest and we can chip away at its strength while looking for any good opportunities.
We have eleven people, ten who can fight up close and Chris, so we can split into four groups and keep fighting it.
We’re not going with three, three, four, because we want to keep members of ours and Argo’s party separate. It goes without saying that we’re more experienced fighting with people of the same party.
I think it’s possible for us to adjust to each other, but then we wouldn’t be able to use our full power.
Also, since the plan is to rest while others fight, the more teams we have, the more time we have to rest.
According to the documents, the boss doesn’t take the initiative to attack, but I don’t know how it will behave while we fight, so we’re going to rest while staying cautious.
“How should we split up?”
“I’ll team up with Sera, so how about the three of you form a team with Mia acting as support?”
Mia casts buffs to support everyone, and Hikari and I are the main attackers.
“Chris can use magic to bind it too. It will work to our advantage if you can dull its movements.”
Rurika says to Chris.
Yes, she can’t damage it directly, but she can support by hindering it.
I don’t know if she can hit it if the battle turns too chaotic, but that’s one of the things we can test in the training area.
Also, there’s a rumor going around that the guild will stop us from going to the tenth floor because we’re not strong enough.
That might be because unlike Jetblack, we didn’t stay on the tenth floor for long periods of time, and didn’t sell any materials after getting back.
If we don’t report to the guild, they have no way of knowing how much we’ve hunted.
Conversely, people are taking the fact that Jetblack isn’t back yet as a positive.
Some people don’t like them, but most adventurers in this town look up to them. I guess a big clan is always going to look attractive to adventurers.
Meanwhile, I’ve been seeing some people with grim faces. They’re a part of Jetblack.
They respond with a smile when someone talks to them, but it feels like they’re nervous. Like they’re on edge.
“It’s probably because the others aren’t back yet.”
Whispers Argo, who noticed the same thing.
Three days later, a new party is put together by Jetblack to go to the tenth floor, to the cheers of many adventurers.
If Jetblack is the light, we’re the darkness. That same day, we enter the boss room, without anyone knowing about it.
Thanks for the treat.
Thanks for this weeks updates, & hope everybody has a good weekend. 😎👍
Just replicate the god killing blade