Chapter 99: With So Many Eyes Watching, Let Me Show Off a Bit More! (Patreon)

Floor boss Goliath had spawned ahead of schedule.

Bors was long used to this kind of surprise. Not even the full crowd of Adventurers gathering here had arrived yet.

The one-eyed middle-aged man quickly looked away. Kashima and Mikoto were both Lv2 Adventurers, and in an assault party that made them a solid core force by any measure.

Still…

Bors turned to Rozz, the obvious leader of the group, and was about to question him when the black-haired boy slowly rose to his feet.

"Get ready to strike!"

At that order, every Adventurer present, Kashima and Mikoto included, wore an eager look, as if they'd been looking forward to the coming fight.

What was going on here?!

Completely baffled, Bors turned his gaze on the kid leading them. In all his years knocking around Orario, he'd never seen this brat before! And the full set of gear from the Hephaestus Familia only confirmed it: this stranger had to come from a powerful Familia.

The one-eyed man forgot his wounded pride at being ignored in an instant. He raised his head and spoke much more seriously: "Which Familia are you from? Don't tell me you plan to clear this on your own!"

So this guy was talking to him after all!

Rozz turned his head. He had no intention of hiding anything, but he remembered he'd temporarily transferred to the Hephaestus Familia. His habitual answer reached the tip of his tongue, and he changed course.

"I'm technically a new Adventurer of the Hephaestus Familia. There's no problem with affiliation when it comes to Goliath, right?"

Just as expected!

Bors knew full well that the Hephaestus Familia was Orario's top weapons supplier, and that its strength was beyond doubt. But set against Rozz's words, it felt wildly out of joint. A new Adventurer wanting to clear a Lv4-class floor boss? What the hell was that supposed to mean? Was he joking?

The one-eyed man held no hope for him at all. His stereotype of strong-Familia Adventurers only hardened: arrogant brats with slightly better talent and a cushy Familia behind them, who'd sooner or later faceplant in the Dungeon with that attitude!

Bors shook his head decisively. "No problem. If you can clear it, that's your own skill."

"Good enough."

Rozz drew the sword at his waist without hesitation. Under the lights of the boss room, its keen edge gleamed with a bone-chilling light.

Just as Lili had said, as an Adventurer's strength and level rose, their recovery from fatigue changed qualitatively. Of course, the Stamina development attribute played a part too.

Rozz and his party walked away.

The scraggly-looking Adventurer standing beside Bors grumbled, "Why do I feel like that guy's a bit arrogant? He'll take a fall sooner or later."

Bors didn't mind. His eyes followed the strange party advancing on floor boss Goliath, and he said, "Go to Floor 18 and notify those guys. Tell them we're about to take on floor boss Goliath!"

"Boss, you don't think they can pull off the clear?"

The one-eyed man turned around, his eyes full of certainty. "Wanna bet on it? If they clear Goliath without a hitch…"

"Mm."

"…I'll go get that treasured old granny foot-binding cloth of yours and drink the water it's been soaked in!!"

—

"So what do we do now?"

Against ordinary Dungeon monsters, each of them could fight on their own, staying alert and covering each other when danger came. But now…

Mikoto stared at the distant floor boss Goliath, unable to hide how lost she felt. This kind of scene was her first, too. She looked to Rozz for an answer.

Faced with her question, Rozz scratched his head sheepishly. The most harrowing thing he'd met in his Dungeon exploration was the young dragon, and he'd only survived that thanks to Lili's amplification Buff. He could hardly ask a black-haired beauty for a kiss before taking on a floor boss, could he?

He thought it over, then answered, "How about you guys back me up from the sidelines? If I can't manage the clear, join forces with those other Adventurers."

"No problem."

Kashima didn't refuse the arrangement. Takemikazuchi's words that day were still vivid in his mind. He would follow his heart and make the choice he could stand behind without shame.

That's right… No amount of spoken apology was anything but self-deception.

Now, facing the monster Goliath, the rugged young man wanted to prove to Rozz that he wasn't someone who only talked big.

Kashima gave his orders without hesitation. "Chigusa, you and the others, ranged harassment."

"Understood."

His gaze swept over Lili, and he recalled the disdain he'd shown her back then. He added earnestly, "Keep Miss Lili safe."

"Mikoto and I will hold the front line. Rozz, you take the main assault."

Compared with Rozz and Lili, the Takemikazuchi Familia moved like a well-coordinated team. As soon as the orders landed, they spread into formation, supporting from range with their bows.

Kashima gripped his great axe and an iron shield. Mikoto, already ready for battle, held the Eastern sword Zansetsu in both hands, prepared to cover and assist Rozz at any moment.

Companions.

Maybe that was what being an Adventurer meant?

Rozz raised his head and looked ahead. Through the dust, floor boss Goliath was slowly getting to its feet, its vast body towering.

In that case…

Before the other Adventurers and Familia arrived, he'd fight to his heart's content!!

Mana Burst.

Extremely dense mental power, guided by Myriad Phenomena magic, instantly blanketed Rozz's entire body surface. He carefully felt out his fully enhanced stats.

"Then… let's have some fun."

The moment the words fell, Rozz crouched slightly and gathered his strength in his legs. As he burst forward, the flat ground split into a spiderweb of cracks.

His figure shot toward floor boss Goliath like a brilliant azure meteor, unleashing an all-out assault!

Even in the full-power state of Mana Burst, thanks to Senior Ryuu's instruction, Rozz could still completely control that power.

The monster was enormous. Rozz knew that fighting the way an ordinary fighter would be nothing more than scratching Goliath's back. He held his sword by the hilt in his right hand.

That dense mental power instantly coated the weapon.

Chidori Blade.

Pure white lightning drove back the darkness of the boss room, violent arcs leaping and venting their energy into the surroundings.

Rozz dashed up to the monster. He leapt and slashed decisively at Goliath's chest. The flash of the blade vanished in an instant, carrying a thunderous assault behind it.

In that moment, the swift strike left a savage wound on the monster's thick hide, and Chidori's lightning spread outward on contact.

"Fzzt~"

"GRAAAH!"

The agony of the wound drew a raw, primal roar from floor boss Goliath, its crimson eyes locked on the figure before it.

The monster swung a fist with brutal force, trying to pound the insect that dared provoke it into paste. To Rozz, the counterattack was far too slow, even though he was still briefly airborne.

He quickly adjusted his landing posture.

Futsu no Mitama.

The magic fired instantly, no incantation needed. The gravity field he unfolded not only restrained floor boss Goliath's attack but also accelerated Rozz's fall to the ground.

"Mm. Just as Lili said, Goliath's regeneration is strong!"

After putting a safe distance between them, Rozz looked up and saw the wound on the monster's chest closing at a pace visible to the naked eye.

No wonder…

Only now did he understand why they'd even hauled heavy siege ballista bolts all the way here: ordinary attacks simply didn't do damage.

"In that case…"

He raised his left hand again and decisively changed how he channeled his mental power. Dazzling electric light instantly covered his palm.

In the once-silent air, the sharp cry of Chidori burst forth.

Chidori Sharp Spear.

The lightning condensed into a spear, a perfectly straight line, and assaulted floor boss Goliath's chest again. The piercing shriek carried an attack that could destroy anything.

When it hit the monster's chest, savagely violent energy exploded outward, and the crack of the thunderbolt briefly lit the whole vast room.

"That should work this time, right?"

Setting Kirin aside, the Chidori Sharp Spear he'd just used was absolutely the most outrageous attack Rozz had in both killing power and scale.

But could this level of assault do real damage to Goliath? Rozz honestly had no idea. Looking at the floor boss ahead, he reasoned that even with strong regeneration there had to be a limit.

All he had to do was keep stacking up attacks!

—

At the edge of the battlefield.

The long-haired black-haired girl kept watching her distance so she could better assist Rozz, just as she had hoped in her heart. Facing floor boss Goliath, Rozz in his full-power state was…

Strong…

Strong enough, one might even say, to leave Mikoto breathless. His swordsmanship, honestly judged, was plain and unadorned. But then Chidori appeared: the sound of countless birds crying together, and the lightning that drove back the dark. It completely overturned everything she thought she understood.

Mikoto pressed her thin lips together and murmured, "Isn't this… kind of wrong?"

"I keep feeling that even without our help, floor boss Goliath… couldn't pose any threat to Rozz at all!"

Kashima wasn't careless. The white light that flickered now and then kept lighting up the rugged young man's face, and he didn't even notice his own astonished expression.

Not only that. The Adventurers who had gathered here to take down Goliath together exchanged glances, blank-faced.

Bors was no different. The one-eyed man stared in disbelief at the battlefield that was Rozz's alone, as if he'd seen a ghost.

Especially… when he remembered that bet from earlier, his face turned thoroughly ugly. Still, he called out to the Adventurers who had paid their fees:

"You lot, if you want to scrape together a Great Feat, go help! But if you can't coordinate with him, don't get in his way!"

"If he comes looking for you to settle it afterward, that's none of my business."

Right then, with the monster's ear-splitting roars, the relentless injuries fully awakened floor boss Goliath's ferocity.

Bors saw the monster open its savage maw and his eyes went wide. He shouted with everything he had: "Adventurer brat, Goliath has a sound-wave-style magic attack!"

"…What's he babbling about?"

This was a truly glorious fight!

Pouring out every skill and trick he'd mastered, Rozz had no need to think about how it would end. Have fun first, worry later!

As for the Adventurers steadily closing in on the battlefield, he didn't mind them much. It wasn't as if he could stop everyone from leeching a Great Feat. He looked up at the explosion's dust as it slowly faded.

And at floor boss Goliath's savage, gaping maw.

In an instant, Rozz seemed to glimpse his own future: the monster's all-out counterattack, and himself badly crippled by a magic blast!

His survival instinct urged him to retreat to a safe distance.

"Holy crap."

"What the hell, since when do monsters have a second phase?!"

But the fully enraged floor boss was never going to give him that chance. Goliath clenched both fists and kept hammering at Rozz, trying to seal off every escape route of the insect-like Adventurer before it.

As mana gathered, an orange-red, magic-like attack took shape, and Goliath's crimson eyes locked onto Rozz.

Carrying a Forced Stop effect, the floor boss's sound-wave-like magic attack swept toward him. The ground along its path was utterly destroyed, flinging up countless rocks, as if to kill Rozz right there.

"!!"

Standing far off, always ready to rush to his aid, Mikoto was swiftly chanting the spell of her gravity magic, Futsu no Mitama.

The girl intoned in a low voice: "I call upon the Supreme's name, in awe and reverence. Here and now, named by my own name, I summon thee, descend from the heavens."

"Shinbu Tousei!!"

A violet phantom greatsword instantly pinned down floor boss Goliath's colossal body, and the gravity effect collapsed the ground around the monster, preventing it from pursuing Rozz further!

Another moved too: Ouka Kashima, resolved to prove himself to Rozz, shouldering his massive cast-iron shield.

When the monster's magic attack arrived, he stood firm in front of Rozz without a moment's hesitation.

"Thud!"

Even with the cast-iron shield dug into the ground, the enraged Goliath's assault sent the rugged young man flying several meters.

Luckily he only looked wretched. The rugged young man got back up, teeth bared against the pain in his arm. Only when he looked at Rozz again was his smile full of ease.

Kashima asked casually, "Can you still fight?"

Truth be told, none of the tricks Rozz had mastered could do real damage to Goliath, and fighting on wouldn't change the outcome.

But then,

Rozz noticed the girl at his rear flank casting Futsu no Mitama, and the passing Adventurers buying him time.

Most of all…

Lili, watching him with eyes full of worry.

He turned his gaze back to floor boss Goliath ahead, called on all the mental power in his body, and pointed his index finger at the monster.

The gravity field, compressed to its extreme, condensed at his fingertip into a round black mass.

The overdrawn mental power drained the color from Rozz's face, yet the smile on his face stayed bright.

He said softly,

"After all, with this many people watching, let me show off a little longer!"

—

[Author's Note: PS: About the first-subscription Flag I set before the book went paid, the author has roughly tallied the word count: 26 days, 200,000 words updated. My tenosynovitis then flared up in the middle of that, so I was in rough shape at the end of September. (This chapter counts as yesterday's, since I write fight scenes slowly.) All in all, over the 20 days before going paid, updating 8k a day, the Flag was just barely fulfilled. As for the update plan going forward: it should be 4k+ daily updates, plus paying back one 4,000-word bounty bonus chapter every day.]