Chapter 36
The event had entered its second half. We had been making steady progress, already clearing twelve labyrinths with a recommended level of 25. Every boss had been a tough opponent, but by working together, we had somehow managed to defeat them all.
"This time, it's the Cursed Grave Tower, huh?"
"Ugh, that's the place with the worst rating on the message boards!"
The moment we entered the labyrinth, an information announcement played, and Aina, who checked the message boards frequently, let out a deeply unhappy voice. Apparently, it had no puzzle elements, but was filled with traps and murderous intent that made it impossible to let your guard down even for an instant. As she explained, Rose and Renka's faces gradually turned deathly pale.
"Ah, it's full of Undead...?"
"Um, I'm not good with horror..."
The monsters they would face seemed to frighten them more than the sadistic traps did. Rose was usually rather tomboyish, but seeing her like this reminded me that she really was a girl after all.
"Then should we withdraw? We'd lose almost no time if we do it now."
"No. That's no good."
Kikuno and Megu were the ones making that suggestion. Apparently, once the game was fully implemented, withdrawing from a dungeon run would cost you part of your money, but during today's event there were no disadvantages of any kind. So turning back here would be the right decision.
"B-but if we withdraw, it'll put us at a disadvantage in the event..."
Rose was worried about one of the few penalties in this event. If you withdrew partway through instead of being wiped out, it would affect your ranking when the event results were tallied.
To be specific, suppose there were parties with exactly the same clear records. In that case, the party with fewer withdrawals would receive the higher ranking. That was what she was worried about.
Incidentally, there have even been reports of people repeatedly gathering materials and then withdrawing. An angel would warn them to fight at least some of the bosses, and if they ignored the warning, some of the items they had gathered would be confiscated. I suppose cheating wasn't allowed.
"You two really don't need to push yourselves. It's fine to withdraw. But if you do go, I'll protect you with everything I've got."
"Luke...!"
"Luke-san...!"
It seemed obvious to me, but for some reason the two of them looked deeply moved. Their faces had even turned red, a complete change from how pale they had been moments ago. I wonder what was going on?
"I'm going!"
"I'll do my best too!"
"Is that so? Then stay close to me, all right?"
"Mmph!"
Rose and Renka had perked right up. But now the other three looked displeased. This happened from time to time, but what had caused it?
"Then let's get going. It seems to be difficult, but we'll be fine. Let's be the first to clear it and avenge all the players who came before us!"
"Yeah!"
"...Yeah."
What was with this difference in enthusiasm? I was worried about what lay ahead...
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"Damn! Aina, cover me!"
"I know! Light Lance!"
The Cursed Grave Tower was, just as the advance information had indicated, a labyrinth filled with cleverly designed traps and perfectly placed monsters. Its difficulty was terrifyingly high, but it was never unreasonable.
Still, I couldn't praise it without reservation. That was because this labyrinth was simply too hardcore. It was designed to make you die repeatedly, learn how to counter its challenges, and start over again and again until you cleared it. It wasn't suited to this event, which required clearing it in a single attempt, nor was it suited to Random Dungeons, which were generally meant to be experienced only once.
"Hmph! This side's clear!"
"Luke, now!"
For us, though, this was a sort of bonus stage. That was entirely thanks to Aruru, the Goddess of Light and Order. The holy sword I had received from her along with her blessing possessed a powerful Light attribute. In other words, Undead monsters were nothing more than experience points to us.
"Hah!"
My holy sword felled monsters with every swing. The number of monsters had increased dramatically after we entered the third floor, but it wasn't an unmanageable number. Since combat was less of a burden for us than for the other parties, we could devote our attention to finding traps and the like.
It made me feel as though we were cheating a little, but FSW was not a game in which every player was treated equally. So there was no reason for us to feel guilty. We simply had to keep moving forward.
"There isn't any information beyond here. The route won't be as easy as it has been so far. Stay alert!"
"Got it."
Apparently, the real challenge began here. I didn't know how many floors this tower had, but just like the other labyrinths, I was determined to clear this one too!
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It had been an extremely difficult journey. From the middle of the third floor onward, there had been no information at all, and we had to feel our way through completely blind. We had nearly died several times, but somehow we managed to reach what appeared to be the top floor, the fifth floor.
"The boss should be beyond here."
"Good grief. Fighting a boss with almost none of our healing items left is a first for me."
We had used up nearly all of our healing items along the way. Reaching this far without any advance information had been incredibly difficult.
There were Skeleton Walls hidden all over the place, with monsters waiting behind them—that part was practically standard. Magic from Ghost-type monsters that emerged through ordinary walls, ambushes from monsters disguised as the floor, traps that sprang when we had almost forgotten about them, and elite monsters that launched battles of attrition while leading huge numbers of lesser monsters.
Whoever had designed the labyrinth's mechanisms to drive us into a corner with every trick in the book, mixing straightforward attacks with underhanded tactics, was unquestionably insane. And mean-spirited. They had to be smirking as they watched us struggle desperately.
"But there's no way we're turning back now. This is the decisive moment. Everyone, let's go!"
"Yeah!"
Are you watching, you administrators who created this labyrinth? I'll turn your smug faces bright red with rage!
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"Whoa, seriously? They got through that on their first try...!"
I watched the hero party survive after being surrounded by dozens of monsters on the monitor. No, what the heck was that?! The Undead, whose defining trait was their tenacity, were being beaten one-sidedly. What kind of trick was this?
The hero-kun's firepower in particular was absurd. There was no way he could kill them in one hit! It wasn't as though he was cutting off their heads in a single blow like Genjuro; he was merely cutting through their torsos, yet they died instantly. There had to be some kind of mechanism at work.
It wasn't magic. It didn't look like the result of using 【Enchantment Magic】, either. And yet he was dealing that much damage... A weapon that possessed the Light attribute from the start, perhaps? I didn't want to believe such a thing existed, but there was no other explanation.
It seemed the hero-kun had the worst possible compatibility with the Cursed Grave Tower. Ugh, maybe I really drew the short straw this time.
No, don't give up. Though the hero-kun seemed to be targeting me specifically, that didn't mean victory was impossible. All I had to do was avoid letting his sword hit me.
"It turned out to be a blessing in disguise that I made the boss this very race on a whim."
In fact, like Ruby, I was a boss who fought in a style different from my usual one. If I had stayed in place like a fixed turret as usual, I would have been killed instantly, but this time was different. If I maneuvered well, victory should not be impossible.
That didn't mean I thought I could win by fighting head-on. If my opening move failed, I would be killed without any chance to fight back. When should I make that first move? Everything depended on it.
"Heh. It's hard to tell which of us is the challenger."
I had the higher level, yet the fact that I was the one at a disadvantage made me smile wryly. As I watched the hero party steadily approach on the monitor, I reached out and took hold of the hilt of the weapon leaning against the wall.
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Clunk...
With a heavy sound, the door to the boss room opened. Just as I had expected, it was pitch-black inside.
"Night Vision."
Aina used 【Exploration Magic】 to cast a spell that let everyone see through the darkness. Now we should be able to survey the room.
"Now then, will it be a demon or a snake...?"
"Kikuno, what comes out here is bones or corpses."
"Oh, right."
Putting Kikuno and Megu's comedy routine aside, we examined the boss room. It seemed to be a burial place for the remains of royalty and nobles. The coffins and wall decorations were lavish, so that was probably the case.
"Oh—careful. There's something there!"
Rose was the one who scolded us for gazing around so casually. We tightened our focus and stared in the direction she was watching. A skeleton stood there, wrapped in a cloak that must once have been beautiful but had faded with age. It wore an equally weathered crown and gripped a rusted sword.
Swish...
When the skeleton raised its hand, every coffin in the room opened from the inside!
"Aaaaaahhh..."
"The one in the middle is a Royal Zombie, Lv. 25. The ones on either side are General Skeletons, Lv. 25. The rest are all knight-type Undead in their early twenties."
Was this the boss and its minions?! There were quite a lot of them. Were they planning to crush us with numbers? But no matter how many lesser monsters they gathered, they were meaningless against us. With a holy sword imbued with the Light attribute, we would definitely cut our way through!
"Let's go, everyone!"
"We know!"
We took them on in our usual formation. We had already gained experience fighting groups with commanders during the journey here. We had almost no healing items left, but if we stayed calm, we should be able to win.
"Ooooooaaaahhhhh!!!"
The army of Undead came charging toward us with eerie cries. Rose and Renka, who were bad with horror, grimaced, but the rest of us were already used to them, so their intimidation was pointless.
Undead were certainly frightening to look at, and their teamwork, built around sacrificing themselves, was troublesome. But apparently, Undead generally had low AI Levels and didn't use any tactics other than suicidal charges.
Once we knew their numbers, durability, and tendency to try to kill us along with their own allies, we had the advantage. Rather than trying to stop them head-on, we only had to maneuver in a way that deflected the entire swarm. Aina's clever idea for this tactic, combined with everyone's ability to carry out movements that were difficult even when we knew what to do, had brought us this far.
"Here!"
At Kikuno's signal, we split left and right to evade the Undead's charge. Even if they had formed up in ranks, there was no way we would lose to enemies whose only tactic was charging in and sacrificing themselves!
"Hah!"
"Hya!"
"Light Lance!"
As the Undead stumbled after missing us, we slammed our strongest attacks into them from both sides. It was a simple pincer attack. As befitted the boss's minions, they weren't killed instantly by anything except the holy sword's attacks. But that difference was negligible.
"Gaaaaah!"
"Ggiieee!"
Oh, had they decided they couldn't leave things to the lesser monsters? Both General Skeletons came charging out. We couldn't ignore those.
"Kikuno, we'll leave this to you! Rose!"
"Got it!"
"Yes, one each!"
It was incredibly helpful that we could communicate everything we needed with just that. Rose and I broke away from the enemy group and fought the General Skeletons one-on-one. Damn, that sword was sharp and heavy! Its defense was solid, too. It was more formidable than any humanoid monster I had fought so far. But...
"Now!"
"Gah!?"
I narrowly deflected the General Skeleton's huge swing as it struggled to find an opening, then slammed my sword into its torso. Ugh, was that too shallow?
"Gaaaah!"
"Gnh, ugh!"
It hit me with its shield! Its sword and shield were both battered, yet it was absurdly tough. That still hurt even through my helmet...
"...Aah!"
Pain was heavily reduced inside the game, but a blow still made me reel, and a slash still stung. Apparently, you could change the settings to make it hurt as much as it did in reality, but I wasn't a masochist, so I left them at their defaults. That was why even an ordinary high school student like me could endure the pain and swing my sword. I absolutely would not lose!
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"Taaaah!"
"Gugaaaahhh...!"
Though we were all battered and worn out, we defeated the boss, the Royal Zombie. The Royal Zombie was a magic swordsman who could use both swords and magic—in other words, just like me.
Even after clearing out the minions, it had taken all six of us to fight it, and it had been incredibly strong. It must have possessed an exceptionally high AI Level.
Our healing items and Renka's mana were exhausted, so we wouldn't be able to recover for a while. Even Aina, who had the most health left, was at only sixty percent. As for Kikuno, who had kept fighting as our shield, she had less than twenty percent remaining. It had really been a close call.
But the harsher the fight, the better the reward. Until now, only one treasure chest had appeared after each boss battle, but this time there were three.
"Phew, it's over!"
"Yeah, we won."
"...That's strange."
While we were reveling in our victory, Aina alone was frowning and thinking hard. What was wrong?
"Hey, were those really the boss monsters?"
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
Kikuno let out a dumbfounded cry at Aina's completely unexpected remark. Everyone except Aina, myself included, felt the same way. But apparently, something was really bothering her.
"According to the message boards, a labyrinth boss's level is the recommended level plus five. In this case, that should mean level 30."
"Hmm, it was the same in the previous one."
"But those guys were level 25 at most. Isn't that strange?"
She was right; I had felt that same unease. But Kikuno immediately argued back.
"There were three of them at once, right? Their levels were probably lower because we were fighting three opponents."
"There's one more thing bothering me. How did we win? No, I'm not underestimating our own abilities. It's just... winning without using even a single healing item..."
Hmm. Put that way, Aina's argument did seem valid. Then, if the monsters we'd just fought weren't the boss...
Shhk!
"...Huh?"
I thought I heard something being severed, and then my field of vision slowly slid out of alignment. Instant death... No way. Had my neck been cut...?
(Sorry, everyone...)
The last thing I saw was my party members staring wide-eyed in incomprehension, along with a black-robed figure who had just finished swinging a gigantic scythe.