Chapter 100: Defeating a Floor Boss Beyond Your Level, You're Quite Spirited Indeed! (Patreon)

For Adventurers who regularly delve into the Dungeon, belonging to a Familia... probably only counted for something in Orario.

Down here, survival of the fittest was the only law.

That was what the one-eyed middle-aged man believed. Only Adventurers with the guts to fight earned Bors's respect.

And Rozz, whose attitude earlier could even be called a little arrogant, had done exactly that. He was facing the floor boss Goliath alone.

It wasn't recklessness. To Bors, it was a glorious fight, so thrilling it set even his blood boiling.

Noticing the floor boss's berserk state, the one-eyed man gave his orders without hesitation.

"Goliath's gone completely berserk. Buy us some time. I'll go check on that brat."

"...Leave it to us!"

"We're old hands, aren't we? We can't let the new-generation Adventurer brats hog all the glory!"

One Adventurer grinned savagely. "Mages, get ready to chant. Heh... let's have us rabble take over this battlefield."

"Kehehe!"

"Second Squad Leader, where the hell are my siege crossbow bolts? Haul them over here, aim straight at Goliath, and blast the bastard to hell!"

"..."

With the Adventurers' orders handled, Bors grabbed his weapon and strode toward the front lines. He spotted the figure standing motionless, facing the monster.

The one-eyed man was about to call out a warning.

But as Bors walked over, he saw the smile on Rozz's pale face and heard the utterly shameless words he couldn't ignore.

"Since so many people are watching, let me show off a little longer!"

Then Rozz wrung out every last drop of his mental power as the price. The wide-area AoE magic he had originally cast shrank down to the size of a fingertip.

In the end, it took the form of a solid black sphere.

The black orb floating at his fingertip drifted slowly toward Goliath, who was pinned in place far ahead by the gravity magic.

It was only the size of a pellet. Yet the terrifying power within made the one-eyed man's soul tremble, and fear spread across Bors's face.

It was as if... as if the instant that black orb's shell broke, the energy bursting out would annihilate everything into powder!!

Even sensing the threat of death, Goliath, bound in place by the Futsu no Mitama magic, couldn't make any move to dodge. It could only wait for the end.

The unremarkable black orb touched the monster's body.

With a soft whoosh,

a blinding, pure white light lit up the entire floor boss chamber.

The gravity barrier, condensed a hundredfold, collapsed with its domain. In that instant it unleashed a terrifying force beyond words.

Goliath's massive body was crushed apart by gravity. No matter how absurd the monster's regeneration was, it couldn't stop the steady rot, and in the end the body turned to gray dust and scattered!

As if the floor boss had never been born at all, the empty chamber fell silent.

Soon, every gaze turned to the black-haired boy far ahead. He lay spread-eagle on the ground, every drop of his mental power squeezed dry.

Because Goliath's clean kill was, without question, Rozz's handiwork!!

Without exception, the Adventurers on the scene wore faces of blank shock and tangled emotion. Most of all, they couldn't believe something so far beyond their understanding.

"Holy shit, what the hell was that noise just now!"

"Floor boss Goliath... why'd it just die like that? Bro, do you think we can really leech a Great Feat off this?"

"Who am I supposed to ask, if you're asking me!"

"If we didn't leech the Great Feat, I'm getting my money back from that Bors bastard. No, I'll shake him down for even more!"

"..."

Until the battle ended, Mikoto had been pouring everything into Futsu no Mitama, restraining the Lv4 floor boss.

She had only been covering the rear, but the fight had drained her just as badly. Exhaustion filled her exquisite face.

The girl raised her head.

She looked ahead. The floor boss's figure was gone, and only the devastation left by the fierce battle remained.

"Is this... right?"

Mikoto murmured softly.

The black orb that had ended the floor boss Goliath felt deeply familiar to her. It was the same destination reached by a different road from the gravity magic she had mastered.

Yes. It had to be Rozz's improved version of Futsu no Mitama, refined after he mastered it. Yet with the very same magic, she could only restrain the floor boss for a short while.

This guy...

he could completely kill a Goliath at around Lv4!

As she thought it through, the black-haired girl felt a strange sense of acceptance. "He's been an Adventurer for half a month and he can kill Goliath. Hm."

"Even if Rozz told me he wanted to become a hero, I'd probably find that reasonable?"

[Mikoto.jpg]

*

As the eyewitness at the front, Bors had stared straight into that dazzling light, and his one remaining eye was shot with blood.

He kept hearing a cracking sound in his ears.

Goliath was dead.

Before the main force had even arrived, this guy had taken it down by sheer force, and the desperate struggle had flipped in an instant!

How to put it?

Bors couldn't find the right word. He turned to look at Rozz, and noticed the carefree grin on the boy's face.

He thought it over. But the one-eyed man had no literary refinement whatsoever, so all he could do was raise a thumb and give his verdict from the bottom of his heart.

"Now that's what I call high spirits... Adventurer brat!!"

"..."

There was no reply.

Instead, Bors saw two beautiful Adventurer girls sprint toward Rozz at the same time, one from the front of the battlefield and one from the rear.

As if it had just sunk in, the one-eyed man spat hard on the ground. Remembering the bet over granny's foot-binding water, his eyes grew even more conflicted.

"Damn it."

"Being absurdly strong is one thing, but why the hell are you this popular with women?!"

*

Mind Down.

What kind of experience was it, exactly?

Rozz honestly struggled to describe it. It was like waking up from a hangover, with a stabbing headache, while someone clubbed him from behind!

Utterly nauseating...

His stamina clearly hadn't hit its limit, yet he couldn't control his body at all.

Then the Supporter girl's familiar, youthful face appeared above him, and Rozz felt the soft lap pillow that belonged to Lili alone. Mikoto Yamato, Kashima, and the others were watching him with worried eyes.

He forced out a smile and explained in a light tone, "No problem. My mind's just run pretty dry. I feel kind of sick."

"..."

The mood was a little too quiet.

Rozz decided to liven things up. Remembering his first conversation with Kashima, Mikoto, and the rest, he raised an arm. "Told you, didn't I?"

"I said we'd win."

"And seriously, thank you all. Without you covering me, I'd never have dodged Goliath's pursuit."

"..."

Lili didn't give Rozz a chance to keep talking. Remembering the sight of him being hit by the floor boss, the Supporter girl was still shaken even now.

He had said it himself: if they couldn't take the floor boss, they'd gather with the Adventurers from Rivira and fight together.

And then? He could have followed that plan, but instead he made her worry this much!!

Lili looked up. She thought of Kashima holding up a cast-iron shield in front of her Rozz, and her earlier grudge quietly melted away.

"Let's head back to the Under Resort for now," she suggested. "We can think about going back to Orario after we've rested."

"Sounds good."

The Takemikazuchi Familia Adventurers naturally had no objection.

Before they left, Lili, Rozz's personal Supporter, looked at the spoils scattered in the distance and asked the one-eyed man:

"How are we splitting these spoils?"

"..."

At any other time, that would have been something to hash out with the other Adventurers. But this assault had been led almost entirely by Rozz.

In that case, Bors couldn't bring himself to say it.

His gaze swept over the other Adventurers, and he answered firmly, "They're all yours, of course. These guys are just leeching the Great Feat."

"...All right."

The one-eyed man watched the Adventurer party gathering the floor boss's drops. At last he came back to himself and recalled a key piece of information he had completely overlooked when Rozz introduced himself.

"Rookie Adventurer."

That was really unfamiliar.

Bors was certain he had never seen Rozz in the streets of Rivira, let alone heard his name.

By all logic, how could a member of the Hephaestus Familia who could solo the Lv4 floor boss Goliath be unknown in Orario?

As if a certain possibility had struck him, he twitched the corner of his mouth and hurriedly shook his head, dismissing the impossible guess.

"Surely not..."

"Surely this bunch of rookie Adventurers didn't reach Floor 18 for the first time, run into Goliath, and just casually kill it?"

"..."

As they prepared to return to the Under Resort, Rozz's party passed right in front of him.

Bors couldn't hold back his curiosity any longer and hurried to ask, "I keep feeling like he's unfamiliar. I've never seen Rozz in Orario."

"Was he operating somewhere else before?"

"Anyone who can solo Goliath is at least Lv4. An Adventurer like that... there's no way I wouldn't know him!"

"..."

Kashima stopped in his tracks.

He and his Familia members exchanged glances. They could all read each other's feelings. If they hadn't known Rozz, they would probably have been deceiving themselves with the same kind of thought.

While Kashima and Mikoto stayed silent, the Supporter girl supporting Rozz puffed out her chest, her face full of pride.

It was like showing off a priceless treasure she owned.

Lili raised her eyes and hummed softly. "I think it's perfectly normal that you haven't seen Rozz. He's only been an Adventurer for half a month."

"And this is our first time exploring as far as Floor 18."

"Hm..."

The Supporter girl paused for a moment, then said in a bright tone, "If you want to know Rozz's story, go back to Orario and see for yourself."

"Because..."

"The world's fastest Adventurer advancement record will be remembered in Orario forever!!"

"??"

Even after Rozz, Lili, and the others had completely disappeared from sight, Bors still hadn't snapped out of it. His head felt stuffed with things he simply couldn't understand.

So they were rookies...

But how could a brand-new rookie Adventurer possibly kill the floor boss Goliath alone!

He grinned and muttered over and over, "I must've drunk too much fake liquor. Even so, why's this dream so damn vivid?"

Then, in front of his loyal underlings and countless Adventurers who had arrived with the assault party, the one-eyed man slapped his own face hard.

Visibly, a bright red handprint rose on Bors's cheek. He felt the burning sting and the extremely odd looks from the Adventurers around him.

Suddenly, he laughed in relief.

"It's fake, right..."

"How could there be a rookie like that, who's been an Adventurer for half a month and can stomp the floor boss Goliath to death like it's nothing?"

"Absolutely impossible!!"

*

Orario.

If you asked what the happiest thing in the world was, it had to be waking up in the morning and checking on Rozz's movements through the Hero Cloud-Raising Plan.

Even Hephaestus thought so. With the Exploration Log as a side dish at breakfast, she figured she could probably eat many more bowls of plain porridge!

The red-haired goddess, brimming with anticipation, looked at the translucent screen before her.

"Then let me take a look."

"After a wonderful night at the Dungeon's Under Resort, Rozz didn't slack off. He led his party back to the assembly area on Floor 17."

"They encountered the newly spawned floor boss."

"Rozz began the fight without hesitation, trying to use the Lv4 floor boss Goliath as the best whetstone for improving his strength at this stage."

"..."

"Rozz pushed his 'Chidori' Skill to the limit, but the gap in strength was too great, and he still couldn't do any real damage to Goliath."

"The floor boss Goliath's berserk counterattack forced him back step by step."

"When the monster's sound-wave magic attack came, Rozz barely evaded it thanks to a fellow Adventurer who sacrificed himself to help."

Reading this, even Hephaestus didn't notice her tightly furrowed brow, or the far-too-generous scoop of white sugar she had dropped into her black coffee.

Actually...

even if Rozz had failed to conquer it, that would have seemed normal to her, just as the Exploration Log described.

The gap in strength was vast.

"As long as he stays safe..."

"Faced with the concerned gazes of the Adventurers around him, Rozz clearly felt the true meaning of the word 'comrades.'"

"And so,"

"Rozz wanted to answer his companions' expectations. He picked his will to fight back up and faced the monster he couldn't beat by any means at his current stage."

"Wringing out all his mental power, he compressed his 'Gravity Domain' Skill to the extreme and launched one final assault on the floor boss."

"He succeeded."

"In just 17 days since becoming an Adventurer, Rozz, at Lv2, conquered the floor boss Goliath in the Dungeon, far above his level."

"Several of Rozz's Potentials have increased..."

"As a seed possessed of hero Potential, tempered by the trials of the Dungeon, Rozz's heroic soul has begun to transform within him."

Through the pale text the Hero Cloud-Raising Panel provided, Hephaestus found it hard to feel the real danger of this battle.

But the powerful shock of Rozz killing the floor boss Goliath at Lv2, far above his level, was very real to her.

"A miracle!"

Then the red-haired goddess noticed her best friend, just awake, shuffling into the dining room with sleep still on her face.

It was hard to admit, but...

Hephaestus suddenly wondered whether keeping Rozz, who had converted to her Familia, with her forever might actually be a pretty good choice.

In her heart, she made a bold guess.

"Actually..."

"Even if Rozz stays in my Familia, as long as I, his goddess, agree, it shouldn't stop Hestia from marrying him!"

[Author's Note: PS: Update #1.]

[Author's Note: Daily Writing Assistant × "Writing day and night, more miserable than a streetwalker." Characters typed this session: 4,543. Typing speed (characters/hour): 2,280. Typing time: 01:59:47. Idle time: 01:48:11.]