Boss Monster

Boss Monster

'Shiiia!'

"Guuu...!"

The foreleg clad in an exoskeleton came crashing down like a bludgeon.

When I caught it on my blade, a heavy impact traveled up my arm along with a hard clang. But it wasn't unbearable.

I forcibly shoved it back, then knocked away the other foreleg as it came at me like a hook. The white blade smashed through its armor and sliced into the flesh beneath.

Red blood stained the ground, and the Yowie's scream echoed through the cave.

With a backhand stroke, I slashed across its torso. As I retreated to avoid the spraying blood, an invisible iron hammer passed by my side.

Takanashi-san's 'Wind Bullet' struck it squarely in the face, making its upper body jerk backward with a dull thud. Immediately afterward, another shot gouged into the wound in its abdomen.

A wet splatter echoed through the cave. At the sight of its intestines spilling onto the ground, something sour rose into my throat.

Somehow, I held back my nausea and readied my sword. After remaining on guard for several seconds, the Yowie's body turned into black mist.

I swept my gaze around and let out a deep breath. The motion made my stomach contents rise again, so I hurriedly closed my mouth and swallowed them down.

"Good work, Yahiro-san. Are you all right?"

"No... It's just that the opponent's guts..."

"...Ah. I see."

"Yeah... Good work to you, too."

Takanashi-san came over beside me and nodded as if she understood.

Her enormous breasts naturally entered my field of vision, overwriting the scene I had just witnessed.

...Perhaps a beautiful girl's huge breasts could eventually cure cancer.

I shook off that idiotic thought and picked up the magic stone. I shook my head inwardly, telling myself to stop. It was good for my spirits to recover, but I couldn't let my head fill with impure thoughts. This was a dungeon, after all.

"Um, are your stamina and magic okay, Takanashi-san?"

"Yes. No problem. I can activate scrolls five more times."

She nodded while holding the handgun-shaped staff.

Activating a scroll required a small amount of magic. They couldn't be used without limit just because we had the items.

"Five times... Then let's continue toward the exit and leave as soon as we get there."

"Understood."

"...By the way, did you feel your Spirit Rank rise?"

"No, not yet. What about you, Yahiro-san?"

"Just now, sort of."

I looked down at my hands and flexed them lightly.

I could definitely feel that my physical abilities and magic output had grown. If I used a scroll now, its power would surely be noticeably greater.

Anyone could use a scroll as long as they could channel magic into it, but its effects were influenced by the user's magic output. After all, this was 'magic.' It was only natural for its effects to vary depending on the mage.

My scroll could be used like a bullet, but that aspect of it was distinctly 'magical.'

"...I see."

For just an instant, Takanashi-san's eyebrows knitted into a worried frown.

Her reaction made me feel a little awkward, so I looked away. From the faint sound of wood rubbing against wood, I could tell she was reloading.

I waited until the sound stopped, then turned my gaze back toward Takanashi-san.

"Er, well. Shall we go?"

"Yes."

We started walking through the cave again.

We had been exploring for about an hour and a half. It was a good time to head back.

As we continued, the passage gradually turned into a slope. I pictured the map in my mind and inwardly breathed a sigh of relief at the thought that we would reach the exit soon.

There was something unsettling about being inside a dungeon. Perhaps it was because I knew that staying in this space for too long was dangerous.

This place was a space recreated from the memories of monsters that had dissolved into the ley lines. This unnatural land absorbed 'foreign matter' as nourishment.

That only happened if one stayed for two or three weeks, though. Even knowing rationally that an hour or two was harmless, it was still an eerie place.

The exception was objects that contained virtually no magic. That was why the Self-Defense Force markers did not disappear.

As we continued up the gentle slope, we arrived at an open area.

It was about the size of four classrooms, I supposed. The ceiling had grown much higher, nearly five meters up. There were openings ahead and to either side, with passages continuing beyond them.

However, entry to the passage ahead was prohibited for 'a certain reason.'

I thought the exit lay down the passage on the left and stepped forward. That was when—

───Kakakakakakak!

"What!? An enemy...!"

"Yes."

I readied my weapon at the shrill footsteps echoing through the cave. Focusing my ears as I tried to locate the sound, I realized it was approaching from two directions.

Yowies were approaching from both the right and left passages. And there wasn't just one in each. Multiple creatures were coming toward us.

Yowies normally did not travel in packs. Just as I was about to freeze at this unexpected situation, a sharp voice reached my ears.

"Yahiro-san, take the right."

"O-okay!"

Takanashi-san's voice brought me back to my senses. I had to prepare to intercept them as quickly as possible. We couldn't both escape, even if I might have managed it alone.

She must have noticed that they were approaching from both sides as well. She retreated while pointing her staff to the left, moving to a position where she could keep both passages in view.

I also backed away slightly, taking a position where we couldn't be caught in a pincer attack. I drew my staff with my left hand and braced it against my right elbow.

At the same time, I clamped my elbow around the part that would have been beneath a gun's barrel. The switches on both sides of the attachment, which looked as though it had simply been bolted on, clicked.

Five crude magic circles instantly unfolded at the tip of my staff. Takanashi-san had apparently replaced the scroll in her cylinder without my noticing; she activated one, causing a magic circle to float at the tip of her staff as well.

Less than three seconds later, the Yowies came leaping into view.

Two came from the right—no, three. Two were charging across the ground, while one ran along the wall on its insect-like legs.

My future-seeing Magic Eye had already witnessed the moment they entered. I pulled the trigger before the lizard heads could even turn toward us.

The moment the released 'Wind Bullet' passed through the central magic circle, the same spell fired from the other four circles as well.

'Scroll: Magic Expansion'

At the same time, five separate iron hammers flew out: three toward the two creatures on the ground and two toward the one on the wall.

The Yowies' scales shattered beneath the blows of the masses of wind, crushing the flesh beneath them and spraying blood.

'Jiiia...!?'

With short cries, the monsters collapsed onto the ground, still carried forward by the momentum of their charge.

The lower attachment for 'Magic Expansion' could only hold one shot. Keeping the staff clamped beneath my right elbow, I moved the lever with my left hand.

The one that had been running along the wall did not move. I fired the second shot into the Yowie on the left of the two that were staggering as they tried to stand.

Its head burst, and its neck twisted at an unnatural angle. But at the same time, the last one charged toward me.

'Jiiiiaaa!'

"D-damn you!"

There was no time to load the next shot. Foreseeing that future, I raised my sword.

It avoided my broad horizontal slash by stepping forward. As the object passing overhead made my heart freeze, I swung my hand-and-a-half sword in a reverse diagonal slash.

The scales on its torso had already been blown away, allowing the blade to slice through flesh and sever bone with ease.

The monster, cleaved cleanly by the thick blade, fell onto its back.

I immediately turned my gaze toward Takanashi-san. But that concern had been misplaced; on her side, all that remained were two Yowies rolling around as they turned into black haze.

Unhurt, she cocked the hammer to fire her next spell and began watching the surroundings.

"I'm glad you're safe, Yahiro-san."

"Ah, yeah."

...Whoa, she's strong.

Though my specs as a Gifted person should have been superior, there was an enormous gap between us as warriors—or rather, as soldiers.

Honestly, she was cool.

While admiring Takanashi-san, I breathed a sigh of relief. It had been a sudden emergency, but we had come through it safely.

I had heard at the seminar that things like this happened. But knowledge and experience were different.

In any case, I wanted to go home already. That was when—

A heavy sound reached my ears.

It was the sort of sound that could only be produced when something weighing several tons fell to the ground. I had heard one like it only when passing by a construction site.

It was coming from the passage ahead. Not just once, either—it came at regular intervals.

These were footsteps.

"No way..."

A helpless complaint slipped from my mouth.

Why was the passage ahead off-limits? Because the small lake at its end was where the boss monster of this dungeon appeared.

'Boss Monster'

A being that could be called the lord of its dungeon. It did not necessarily refer to one specific creature; there had even been reports of multiple boss monsters inhabiting the same dungeon.

What they had in common was that they rarely appeared, and that they were extremely powerful and violent.

I remembered being taught at the seminar that they possessed power on an entirely different level from the other monsters living in their dungeon.

If I remembered correctly, this dungeon's boss monster was a 'Bunyip.'

It was a gigantic monster at least four meters tall that liked to eat humans. On top of that, it could use magic.

"Is that the boss?"

"Y-yes, Takanashi-san! Hurry, ru—"

"Please take the front line."

"We need to ruuuun!?"

I vigorously shook my head at Takanashi-san as she calmly raised her staff.

Why was she so eager to fight!? Did she have oni blood in her or something!?

"...Oh, that's right. Understood."

After looking puzzled for an instant, she spun the cylinder with her finger. When she pulled the trigger, the 'Telekinesis' scroll activated.

Takanashi-san used it to quickly pull the magic stones lying on the ground toward her. When the invisible arm vanished at her feet, she efficiently gathered them by hand. Some had also been pulled toward me, so I picked those up as well.

"Then let's go."

"Y-yeah...!"

We hurriedly retraced the path we had come by. Fortunately, we should be able to reach the exit by taking a slight detour.

One did not fight boss monsters. That was the first rule of adventurers.

If you were about to encounter a boss monster, you ran. Then you reported it to the staff at the 'Containment Site.' After that, the Gifted people in the Self-Defense Force or the police would handle it.

Even so, apparently there were people who tried to fight them. Supposedly, they secretly took the magic stones home and sold them through underground channels. It was only a rumor, though.

In any case, that had nothing to do with us. The best policy was to run.

For an instant, I thought, 'The boss's magic stone might be a valuable material,' but this was a beginner's dungeon.

It was a formidable enemy for rookies like us, but viewed among monsters as a whole, the Bunyip was actually one of the weaker varieties.

This was not the time to get greedy. The Thirty-Six Stratagems say that flight is the best strategy. Some great person said so, too. No, seriously.

And so, armed with a perfectly sound rationale, we fled. Fortunately, we did not encounter any more Yowies after that group and escaped safely.

We immediately reported the sighting to the staff at the 'Containment Site' and breathed a sigh of relief.

Whew... Bunyip. This is the end for you, too. Wash your neck and wait for me.

Someone other than me is going to come kill you! Sleep trembling in fear!

"Yahiro-san, you're sweating terribly. Are you all right?"

"...Because I ran."

"I see."

A dungeon. It was a perilous domain where danger was always at hand, a lair of monsters that regarded humans as nothing but food.

Today's exploration had driven that fact home to me once again.

Fear had my heart pounding like a drum, and the cold sweat refused to stop even after we left the dungeon.

Incidentally,

The ten magic stones we collected during the expedition brought in 100,000 yen. Adding the 3,000-yen reward for the boss monster sighting made 103,000 yen in total, or 51,500 yen each when divided between us.

Needless to say, once the cold sweat subsided, I struck a triumphant fist-pump.

A dungeon. It was a place where danger lurked at every turn, but at the same time, it overflowed with dreams and romance.