Chapter 58
Smoke rose from the Rock Centipede’s corpse.
The Rock Centipede could no longer sustain its body and was returning to a mere mass of mana.
“Luche, you should get down before you get hu—”
“Hot! Th-this smoke... It’s really hot...!”
“Hot...?”
Could a creature as huge as the Rock Centipede generate that much heat as it vanished?
In the game, monsters didn’t release heat when they disappeared, but this world wasn’t exactly the same as the game.
Perhaps some sort of unusual physical law—something absent from 〈Magic World〉—was at work to make this world function...
“No... that’s not it.”
The moment I realized, I felt the blood drain from my face.
A monster we were supposed to have defeated was emitting damaging steam.
This phenomenon had existed in 〈Magic World〉, too.
But there was no way it should be happening here and now.
“Luche, fly over here right now! That monster isn’t dead yet!”
“Huh...? Y-Yes! I’ll come right over!”
As Luche jumped down toward me, a huge cloud of bright red steam billowed from the Rock Centipede’s body.
The blast sent Luche hurtling toward me.
I instinctively stepped forward and caught Luche.
“Thank you... That startled me.”
“I’m sorry, Luche... I misjudged it.”
“Huh...? B-But we did defeat the Rock Centipede, didn’t we...?”
“It wasn’t dead!”
From within the red steam emerged a giant centipede with purple armor.
Its entire body was covered in rugged, spiky scales as tough as armor, and a large single eye sat in its head.
Just below it were rows of long, blade-like fangs that gleamed purple.
【〈Rock Centipede〉 has undergone an existence evolution into 〈Deatharmed〉.】
【〈Deatharmed〉’s level has increased from 60 to 75.】
Existence evolution... a rare event that occurs under specific conditions.
It was a phenomenon in which a monster unleashed its latent potential and mutated into a different species.
“L-Lv. 75?!”
Luche screamed when she heard its level.
Existence evolution only occurred in certain monsters. The conditions were unique to each species, but even in 〈Magic World〉, the exact evolution conditions for every monster were unknown.
There were too many specific conditions, and no real benefit to deliberately triggering it.
It took too much effort, and conducting experiments on monsters was risky.
The only rewards were rare drops and experience, but if you were going to go out of your way to trigger an existence evolution, it was obviously better to enter a 〈Dungeon〉 at an appropriate level from the start.
I had a general idea of the conditions for evolving into Deatharmed.
It had to consume a certain number of adventurers’ corpses and magic stones, then be defeated by adventurers.
Though the numbers and details varied, these were generally the basis for the existence evolution conditions of 〈Dream Lords〉.
I’d thought it was virtually impossible for these conditions to have been met.
They could only be fulfilled if a 〈Dream Lord〉 repeatedly triggered a 〈King’s Wandering〉, moving around inside a 〈Dungeon〉.
I’d heard that the 〈Centipede Tunnel〉 had only appeared recently.
Besides, if adventurers had been slaughtered by a 〈King’s Wandering〉, the information would surely have been shared in Lacolina, the city of adventurers.
The laws of 〈Magic World〉 and this world differed somewhat, but I couldn’t imagine that the conditions for existence evolution had become easier for no reason.
The only possibility was... that someone had deliberately left the Rock Centipede alone after fulfilling the conditions for its existence evolution.
Even so, there were far too many things that didn’t add up.
There was no reason to do such a thing, and I couldn’t imagine anyone in this world knowing the conditions for existence evolution and being able to trigger it at will.
The one thing that was clear was that, because my understanding had been mistaken, we were now facing Deatharmed—and I’d dragged Luche into it.
“I’m truly sorry, Luche... I never thought something like this could happen. Maybe I’d let my guard down because things had been going so well lately.”
“P-Please don’t apologize! That’s right, launch me at it with another 〈Shield Bash〉! Then I can hit it with a combo...!”
“No... Its HP and Defense are absurdly high, and it regenerates quickly. We won’t be able to deal meaningful damage by relying on a flurry of attacks. 〈Dice Thrust〉 isn’t realistic, either.”
〈Dice Thrust〉 gives us better odds than 〈Acrobatic Flurry〉, but even with the latter, we’d need to roll a 【Six】 four times.
Going by the expected odds, we’d have to land 〈Dice Thrust〉 ten times.
If we kept getting bad rolls and too much time passed between hits, the number of hits we’d need would only increase.
We were unlikely to get many chances to attack Deatharmed repeatedly without it retaliating.
“Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!”
Deatharmed charged at us.
Its huge single eye glared straight at us.
A strategy like weaving between boulders to buy time would be useless against Deatharmed.
Its attack would blow the boulders away along with us.
――――――――――――――――――――
Monster: Deatharmed
Lv: 75
HP: 180/180
MP: 88/88
――――――――――――――――――――
I checked its 〈Status〉 just in case, but its stats were hopeless.
Deatharmed itself was terrifyingly fast and had immense attack power.
Even if I attacked it head-on, its massive body would crush me before my blade could reach it.
I had to create an opportunity to attack it safely, while also breaking through its high HP and Defense.
“Luche... There’s one way we might be able to win. Will you go along with it?”