The Tutorial Boss Enters the Upper Level of the Dungeon

"A mess."

In the forest the Monster Wave had clawed through, trees had been snapped, and even those that remained standing had their sides and bark stripped away, while the grass had been torn up by the roots.

Animal carcasses lay strewn throughout the forest, and the stench of rot rising from them caught in my throat.

As the dungeon survey team, we headed for the dungeon ahead of everyone else.

Elena and I were at the front.

Phila brought up the rear.

Three upper-tier A-ranks had banded together.

Objectively speaking, it was an unconvincing combat force. Normally, someone might have questioned the idea of the three of us heading into a dungeon, but

"If Uncle is enough, isn't that enough?"

"I think he must have something in mind."

They were both remarkably trusting.

Phila was one thing, but Elena, shouldn't you question what I say and voice your own opinion?

Now that I thought about it, it felt strange to remember how she had once strutted around, claiming she would negotiate on her own.

Rustle.

The bushes suddenly shook violently.

An orc with gleaming eyes drooled behind a tree trunk.

"Stay alert from here on. There'll be plenty of monsters that broke away from the Monster Wave."

I drew the magic sword.

"I'll do it."

Elena stepped in front of me and drew her sword.

A blue arc cleanly severed the orc's neck in one stroke.

The orc was surprised for a moment, not realizing its head had been cut off, and turned toward Elena. Its head then slid off at an angle and fell to the ground.

"...."

This was still only the tutorial.

Elena had grown far too strong.

'This is kind of scary to think about after her awakening.'

There was still a long way to go before the ending, but I wondered whether she would be controllable later.

Normally, around this point, the walls would have been breached and the fighting would still be continuing inside the city.

I didn't know about the official story, but on a first playthrough, this was the point when the invading monsters raped and violated her.

A powerless virgin who didn't know how to fight.

She would have followed the tutorial guide's innocent instruction to visit the restaurant and been raped by Eck, or taken a wrong turn along the hunting route and become pregnant after a toad injected her with frog eggs, and then once again been...

- Gang-raped.

Beatrice appeared in my field of vision.

In the realm of consciousness, she swam between Elena and Phila as though she actually existed there.

- I get excited by the idea of being raped or reduced to a toilet until I'm a wreck, but at the same time, it kind of kills the mood.

Beatrice swam beside Elena.

- I don't want to look at men's genitals, but I do want to see a virgin who's been thoroughly used, you know?

'What the fuck are you talking about.'

- I'm serious. If you were a man, you should know better than I do.

Beatrice muttered something I couldn't understand at all.

- But hmm. According to the original history you know, Elena was a non-virgin cum receptacle who got fucked by monsters every time, huh.

She tapped Elena's cheek with her index finger.

- Poor thing. How pitiful, becoming a monster's breeding ground and even experiencing childbirth. If it were me, I would've given her a preventive shot. Poor Elena. If you get caught even by accident now, you'll end up giving birth to a filthy beast's offspring as your first child.

'Hey.'

I'd been letting this go on long enough.

I regretted to this day that I hadn't sealed her inside the doll.

She was a spirit of rather high caliber, so an ordinary vessel couldn't seal her.

Phila sidled up to me.

"Ah, you can see the evil spirit, right? I-I'm sorry. I should've prepared the materials in advance."

"We can do it after we clear the dungeon."

Beatrice clung to Phila.

Both of her hands were obscured by Phila's breasts.

Her white hands became outlines that blatantly emphasized Phila's enormous breasts.

- Was she a virgin? No... No way. There was no way someone with a body like that was a virgin. She had the kind of figure that looked like it could suck a man dry to the bone. A girl like this would be a perverted milk cow who masturbated at home until she went insane whenever she had no man by her side. Ah, I should at least have been conscious when I was sealed.

'You'd better be careful. Phila has male genitalia despite that body.'

- Whaaat?! L-lie.

'Go check for yourself.'

- Ugh... I-I can't. I can'ttttt!!! That's not reality!!!!

Beatrice hugged her own body, and her form scattered and vanished.

"Hmph. Nothing special."

"...?"

***

As we traveled along the forest path, the remaining stragglers attacked three or four times.

Wolves, goblins, orcs, wild boars, deer, snakes. Elena and Phila took turns dealing with the various monsters.

"...I haven't had a chance to step in."

As I watched them fight, I compared the differences between the game and reality.

Elena wielded an improved sword aura based on the experience she had gained defending the walls.

The sword aura shredded monsters into pieces with multiple hits, and even trolls found it difficult to regenerate from the wounds before dying of massive blood loss.

Elena's current level was around the middle of Chapter 2 by the standards of the original work.

If you considered it the early-to-midgame, she was around the latter part of the early game.

This was a perfect illustration of how overwhelming Elena's talent was, even without the power of awakening. How could a rookie adventurer with not even two months of experience rival an upper-tier A-rank?

B-ranks were already powerful adventurers, and if you translated them to Earth, they had reached superhuman heights. Maybe they were comparable to super-soldiers.

Even a C-rank would be a shoo-in for becoming an undisputed world champion.

The fact that she had surpassed those two ranks and reached A-rank in only two months was mind-boggling, whether I considered it from the perspective of an ordinary Earthling or with Eck's instincts.

'A talent like that must be the one who saves the world.'

Elena stepped aside,

and this time, Phila stepped up.

Every time Phila raised her staff, she unleashed an explosion that shook the forest.

Nearby monsters were struck by explosions that shot vertically up from the ground, while distant ones were hit directly and left without even a trace.

Explosion magic had been rejected as an unconventional school of magic, destroying her career that had been destined for success and driving her all the way out to this rural backwater.

It was powerful magic, but because it left nothing behind, it was magic no one wanted.

Even so, Phila had never neglected her training and had raised the circle level of her explosion magic.

Even as its circle level increased, explosion magic only became absurdly more powerful without gaining any other applications.

"Explode."

When explosion magic was unleashed at a group of monsters, a pure-white light burst from their center.

Though it was a good hundred meters away, a wave of heat brushed across my cheek.

As a companion who joined around the middle of the story, she was in no way lacking as a combatant.

"Kroaaaagh!!"

A monster that had hidden beneath the ground woke up from the shock of the explosion.

A mass covered in brown fur appeared in front of me and opened a mouth as large as its own head.

"Not a chance."

The blue mane fluttered as I drew the magic sword tucked at my waist without a sheath.

As the magic sword swept from left to right, blue afterflames of Lion Slash burst from the monster. It lost its momentum, and its mouth split open from side to side.

"Uncle! Are you okay?! How's your body?!"

"Who's worrying about whom?"

Elena ran her hands over my body. She felt around my chest to make sure there wasn't even a single wound, then her hands traveled down my back and thighs.

I covered the crown of her head with my palm.

"Ugh...!"

"Stop touching me."

"I was just worried."

In any case, we dealt with the remaining stragglers from the Monster Wave and walked on for half a day.

We set foot on the plains of the northern mountains.

"There."

The place Elena pointed toward.

On a hill rising in the middle of the plains, a rift that tore through space exhaled a blue breath.

The dungeon gate.

A passage that tore through space and led into the dungeon.

The cause of the Monster Wave's emergence.

The source of calamity that had spewed out every monster inside the dungeon.

A breeze blew from the triangular gate that had appeared on the ground. Blue afterglow gathered along the edges of the grass touched by the wind.

A halo-like blue light surrounded my body, as well as Elena and Phila.

"It's anti-magic power appearing in visible form. It's amazing to experience in reality what I'd only seen in books!"

Phila's eyes sparkled.

"But if we enter like this, we'll pass through a passage where space is in disarray, and we'll be scattered. That's why we need a barrier stone."

"The one Uncle brought?"

"Yes."

I took the barrier stone from inside my clothes.

"I heard that making one takes at least several days, even at the fastest. It was the same at the ancient temple, but Eck really is thorough with his preparations."

When the square gemstone touched the breath of the dungeon gate, it formed a barrier that pushed back the blue afterglow.

Elena and Phila entered the barrier.

"Let's go."

I pushed my body into the rift.

***

Thanks to the barrier stone's effect, we ignored the distortion in the rift.

We entered through the proper dungeon entrance.

A gray-white artificial structure rose like a hill, prying open the dungeon entrance.

As we walked down the stairs beneath the darkness, Phila attached a light source to her staff.

Before long, we reached the upper level, where the space opened up wide.

The dungeon's upper level.

I stepped onto its first floor.

But there wasn't a sign of life anywhere in the dungeon.

"It's too quiet."

Elena tightened her grip on her sword and swept her eyes sharply around us.

Only two months ago, Elena had been an ordinary resident. She had heard about the dangers of dungeons through rumors and was excessively wary compared to her actual skill.

But we couldn't hear even a single breath.

There wasn't even the sound of footsteps.

"The entire upper level should be empty. Everything that poured outside came from here."

Put another way, the upper level was a free pass now.

"Still, don't lower your guard."

"Yes!"

"Phila, from here on, you must always signal before casting."

"Y-yes."

Phila nodded repeatedly.

Her eyes behind her glasses were full of tension, and the tip of the staff in her hand trembled.

I took the lead and walked through the passage without hesitation.

Not a single mob blocked our path.

On the upper level, there was no need to worry about traps, and the dungeon's internal layout was simple enough that we couldn't get lost on the way to the boss room.

The closer we got to the boss room, the denser the mana in the air became. Once we were right in front of it, the mana felt heavy, as though it were underwater.

Before long, we reached a massive iron door.

"...."

"...."

"...Phew."

The upper-level boss room.

Only by defeating its master could we close the dungeon gate.

But even so, the fact that it was the upper-level boss room made any tension feel pointless.

'Still, let's not let our guard down.'

As the game turned into reality, the details had become more intricate.

Even if I couldn't be pathologically vigilant like Eck, I would prepare thoroughly for everything I could anticipate and never let what I failed to anticipate catch me twice.

One variable like the Basilisk was enough.

"Don't let your guard down."

I placed my hand against the massive iron door.

"What lies beyond may be a monster I've encountered once before, but it possesses strength on an entirely different level. We don't know what abilities or patterns it might have, so be careful, and then be even more careful."

""Yes.""

I pushed the iron door with all my strength.

Creeeeak.

The sound of metal rang out as the door opened.

The boss room was shaped like a circular arena.

A huge red magic circle covered the floor, engraved with complex geometric patterns, and the enormous shadow crouching at its center rose to its feet.

The magic lamps embedded around the edge of the arena lit one after another, revealing its form.