Chapter 33
With preparations finished, it was finally time to clear this dungeon in earnest.
I called the drones over and gave a light order.
Even though they were drones, they moved smarter than most people, so I trusted them to carry out my orders perfectly.
"If you get hurt, come to me. I'll repair you."
The first step in this assault was also meant to test the power of the new bone bombs I'd made.
"Recon drone, stay as high in the air as you can. And once the battle drone gathers the Lizardmen, drop a bomb there."
As soon as I gave the order, the recon drone rose higher.
Then the battle drone let out a fierce noise and shot toward the Lizardman settlement like a bullet.
Pupupuk-!
As the battle drone flew through the air and sprayed submachine-gun fire everywhere, the peaceful dungeon instantly turned into chaos.
"Krraak!"
"Kruk!"
More than ten Lizardmen raised their weapons and rushed over to catch the battle drone, which kept taunting them by spraying bullets from above.
They began to crowd tightly beneath the battle drone.
"That's a lot..."
I was worried the Lizardmen might shoot the battle drone down.
The battle drone shot straight upward, nimbly dodging the spears and axes the Lizardmen threw at it with infuriating ease, and at the same time the mechanical arm of the recon drone waiting overhead slowly opened.
A single black dot fell straight down toward the crowns of the Lizardmen's heads.
"Kruk...?"
Shiiik—
KWAANG-!
With a deafening explosion that seemed to tear through my eardrums, pillars of mud and water from the swamp shot high into the sky.
At the same time, the dozens of sharp bone shards hidden inside the bomb shot out in all directions like a shotgun blast.
PAPAPAPAT-!
Because the blast and the bone-shard fragments were sharper than expected, even the recon drone that had dropped the bomb from high above was grazed by shrapnel.
Fortunately, I had Repair, so scratches like that were no big deal, but the Lizardmen who'd taken the direct hit below were in miserable shape.
"Keuruk..."
Once the dust cleared.
Most of the Lizardmen clustered near where the bomb had gone off had had their upper bodies ripped apart and were already turning to smoke.
Even the ones on the outskirts who had escaped instant death were crawling along the ground with bone fragments embedded all over their bodies.
It was at least a severe injury.
"I'm glad I was far away..."
Admiring the destructive power that far exceeded my expectations, I slowly started moving.
Now it was time for me and the sniper drone to take the field.
I rushed toward the staggering Lizardmen.
The Lizardmen, already half-dazed by the bomb, couldn't put up much resistance even when I appeared before them.
I was swiftly finishing them off with my mace.
Shhhk!
Suddenly, I heard the sound of something slicing through the air from somewhere.
Thwack-!
"Urgh!"
A huge Lizardman, already lying there with a fatal wound, swung a tail as thick as a log in one last desperate struggle and slammed it straight into my abdomen.
I let my guard down. I never expected a fallen one to attack with its tail—
Having taken the hit for a split second, I clenched my teeth, bracing for the pain to come.
But...
"...Huh?"
I was surprisingly fine.
I only felt a dull vibration; there was no pain at all.
I looked down at my stomach with a bewildered expression.
"Ah... come to think of it, this coat too..."
I'd completely forgotten.
This plain-looking outer coat I was wearing was also armor I'd made when I made equipment at Signal's request.
Up until now I hadn't had any chance to check its effect because I'd been calmly dodging attacks with Leap or my increased agility—
"Pretty effective..."
I gave a hollow laugh and lightly finished off the Lizardman, which had hit my stomach and was looking up at me with despair in its eyes, with my mace.
The hunt after that was a breeze.
Using the same bone-bomb method as before, I was able to wipe out the second group of Lizardmen in an instant.
Two bombs were enough to deal with most of the Lizardmen in the dungeon.
All that was left were the few remaining Lizardmen rushing in from all directions after hearing the blasts.
I tightened my grip on my mace, no longer wasting any bombs.
"Sniper drone. You can fire freely now."
KWAANG!
The moment I gave the order, the sniper drone's rifle roared and blew the head of the charging Lizardman apart like a watermelon.
Since I wasn't going to use the bomb tactic anymore, there was no need for the battle drone to draw aggro.
Now that I was getting used to the swamp, I crossed the boggy ground and moved in toward the remaining monsters first.
"Kik!"
Their combat power wasn't something I could ignore, but the more I fought them, the more I felt like I was learning how to deal with them.
'They... rely too much on their shields.'
In a way, it was only natural, but since the firepower of my sniper rifle and mace was better than expected, I could actually break them down more easily by attacking aggressively.
The more passively I acted, the more they tried to attack, so I became even more aggressive.
Then I could take them out along with their shields.
After easily taking down all the Lizardmen like that, we arrived in front of the boss room.
"I still haven't even gotten to use the traps."
All three poison traps were still untouched.
"Come here for a second. I'll repair you."
I had dealt with the Lizardmen quickly, but without the bone bombs, this wouldn't have gone nearly as smoothly.
As expected of a mid-tier dungeon, there were no fatal injuries, but all three drones had taken armor damage, so each of them had to go through my Repair ability once.
...Come to think of it, some of the parts I'd repaired had been damaged by the bone bombs too.
I, too, had only avoided injury thanks to my gear's defense, and I'd still taken one tail strike from a blind spot.
If normal monsters were this strong, then I'd definitely need to stay more alert for the boss fight.
My gear wouldn't be able to fully block the boss's attacks.
When I pushed open the heavy door to the tightly shut boss room, a silhouette appeared amid the damp, oppressive air.
"Grrrr..."
The one standing in the middle of the dark swamp looked different from ordinary Lizardmen from the very start.
Its entire body was covered in scales, with scars densely etched across them like medals, and it wore heavy armor that looked as if it had been forged from steel.
From its outfit alone, it looked like a warrior out of a fantasy novel.
In one hand it held a massive spear that towered far above an adult man, and in the other, a huge spiked steel shield.
"Kruk."
The boss spotted me at once, let out a low growl, and raised the spear it was holding high over its head.
'...What is it planning? Don't tell me...'
Instinctively, I sensed that it was about to do something.
Thinking it might throw the spear, I moved immediately.
For safety, I even used Leap and rolled hard to the side.
In the end, that judgment was correct.
Whoosh—
BOOM-!
The moment I darted to the side, it jumped high and drove its spear into the ground where I'd just been standing.
Fwoosh!
Like a bomb had gone off, mud and rock fragments sprayed everywhere.
It had been a split second too late.
'How did it make a jump like that?'
There had been no sign at all of any preparatory motion for a jump.
So I thought it was going to throw the spear—
And then I quickly understood why I hadn't seen the motion for a jump.
Fwoosh!
Using its thick tail, it violently tore through the swamp and, with that recoil, launched itself back to where it had originally been.
So that's how you can use a tail.
"...I'll leave trap setup to you! Sniper drone, keep pressuring that thing."
I sprang up and shouted to the drones.
The drones began flying around all over the place, but its eyes were fixed on me alone.
It didn't care about the drones flying through the air at all.
'This works out better.'
While it was glaring at me, the recon drone and battle drone, acting on my orders, grabbed the traps and quickly scattered.
They hid the poison traps very cleverly among the swamp's murky pools and aquatic plants.
An extra option that only reacted to monsters had never felt so reassuring.
Even though I had watched exactly where they hid them, I still couldn't spot a single trap with the naked eye.
Meanwhile, the boss withdrew its spear and charged at me again with ferocious speed.
Whoosh!
This time, the spear tip came straight for my abdomen.
"Ugh!"
I tried to twist my upper body to dodge, but it was too fast and merely grazed my abdomen.
Apparently, Counterattack even counted that as a dodge, so power surged through my body.
My enhanced mace drew a trail toward its flank.
Clang-!
"...What?"
A dismayed exclamation slipped from my mouth.
The mace that had crushed every monster up until now was blocked by the steel shield it had raised and bounced off with a metallic clang.
The shield's surface caved in, but it only got pushed back a few steps and didn't budge otherwise.
It smirked.
"Kruk..."
KWAANG-!
While I hesitated, the sniper drone circling overhead fired its rifle toward the boss's blind spot, aiming for the grinning boss.
It was a perfect ambush made possible by the opening created by the shield, yet with beast-like reflexes, it raised an arm on the shieldless side and somehow blocked the attack.
Crack!
The sniper round only shattered the wrist guard on the arm it had been wearing, and failed to injure the boss.
'...Should I run?'
It was stronger than I'd expected.
Thanks to my gear, it hadn't become a serious injury, but that last attack had torn my abdominal armor.
If that had landed cleanly—
Then the battle drone and recon drone, having finished setting the traps, joined the fight.
Pupupuk-!
"Kruk!"
The recon drone and battle drone moved persistently around the boss's eyes, going for them.
They didn't seem to be dealing any meaningful damage, but the boss, irritated by the drones' nonstop pestering, finally reacted.
Whoosh-!
In a huff, it swung its spear at the battle drone.
The battle drone dodged the spear blade with near-acrobatic flight, but it couldn't overcome the massive gust of wind unleashed by the spear.
Whirrr—thunk!
The off-balance battle drone crashed into the muddy ground.
When the drone dropped, the boss raised its spear high to finish it off.
The very moment it took a wide step to swing the spear.
Click-!
A crisp, chilling metallic sound rang out beneath the boss's feet, tearing through the swamp's silence.
"Kyaeek-!"
The boss, stripped of its earlier imposing presence, let out a shrill scream and threw away the spear it had been holding.
Around its right ankle, a poison trap hidden in the mud had snapped shut, clamping its sharp teeth hard onto its leg.
Whirr.
Maybe it was my imagination, but the battle drone buried in the mud shook its camera lens up and down once, as if winking at me.
Good job. Seriously, I'll definitely upgrade you next.