Second Dungeon Battle
Boss Round One
[Gaooooooooo!!!]
The ground shook from the red dragon’s roar.
The dangerous and intimidating feeling transferred through the monitor. So this is the thing known as a dragon huh.
“… Sorry Goshujin-sama, I wet myself.”
“I might’ve as well, that dragon… [Cleanup].”
“Hyafu—… T-thank you.”
When I used [Cleanup] on Meat, she became clean. I wonder if Rokuko and Ichika are alright?
“A red dragon is somethin’ at a level that even an A-Rank adventurer party would need a scapegoat to just barely win. There’s nothin’ wrong in E-Rank adventurers like Meat-senpai and Goshujin-sama wettin’ themselves. Is Rokuko-sama ‘kay?”
“I’m fine, I can use [Cleanup] myself after all.”
Looks like Rokuko was no good.
Well, back to the topic at hand, we have to deal with that red dragon somehow.
… Nothing to do but to give it a shot.
*
“Kakaka! In the end, you’re no match for this one!”
Melting the golems with her breath, Redra laughed loudly.
[As expected of Redra, but be careful yeah?] “112 is a worry wort! Can’t you see, they’re gone in a single hit!”
Although she was indeed surprised when the water flowed through their dungeon, there wasn’t any damage since it was only to the extent that the floors were a bit wet after Ontentoo made the hole. However, the water had hostile reactions. Redra inclined her neck, wondering what the heck was going on.
(Slimes… no, this many of them? Something even smaller… something that can fuse with water?)
Then, Redra felt the presence of a new golem, breaking her train of thought.
“Wha—, how many times does this one have to… wai–… o-oi!? Wait a second!”
[Huh? What’s wrong, Redra… uoh, this guy…]
Redra, who started to breath fire, stopped and swalled it back in a panic. Ontentoo wondered what caused it, but understood when he saw the golems that came in.
The golem was holding a crystal figurine instead of a shield.
“O-oi! That’s—, can this one get that if she wins!? It’s a pair to the other one!”
[Hahaha! You can’t use your breath, such a detestable guy.]
The crystal figurine would also be destroyed if she used her breath. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that she accepted the dungeon battle because she wanted the figurine, she never thought one would be used as a shield.
“Ku—, then if I use my claws directly…!”
Redra tried to crush the golem directly with her claws. However, a dragon’s huge claws couldn’t perform fine adjustments. Her claws were suited for mowing down enemies all at once, she didn’t think she could pull off a stunt like defeating the golem while leaving the figurine (shield) unharmed.
“… Gauuu…”
She was stumped. She couldn’t fight it.
She growled to threaten the enemy golem. If it was a monster that had animal instincts, it would’ve lost strength in its legs, threw away the figurine, and ran away.
The golem that held the crystal figurine pulled out a sword and used it to slash at her.
Not even bothering to avoid the attack since it’d just be warded off, she dared to accept it.
… Kachiiin!! With a strange sound, Redra’s scales were damaged.
“Uoooh!? A magic sword!?”
She retreated a step in a panic. However, the crystal figurine was almost dropped by getting caught up with the tip of her wing. She folded her wings in as much as possible, trying to make sure it didn’t break.
“Ugu—, this is tricky…!”
The golem approached again, holding up the figurine (shield).
Redra retreated again. She didn’t want to injure the precious treasure. That was all she thought about.
“Mmm, what can I do… wait, huh?”
She had stepped backwards in order to retreat, but she noticed that the floor had started to flood unnoticed.
The water was flowing about. When she looked, the hole made in order to drain it out was being closed with golem hands… Likely, this was that same kind of water that had hostile reactions from before.
“Crafty…!”
She inhaled so that she could use her breath on the golems that were blocking the drainage, but the golem she was running away from beforehand cut in front of her… it was holding the crystal figurine.
“—!!”
She once again swallowed the breath she was about to unleash. Fwoosh. Heat that she didn’t gulp back down leaked from her mouth.
“Then this one will just use her claws to break the passage!”
[Oi don’t do that Redra, that’s outside the boss room. If you leave the boss room… they can break through the floor.]
So long as the boss was in the boss room, it was even airtight.
On the other hand, if there was no boss in it, the water that had a hostile reaction could flow into the following floor… In other words, the fifth floor would be conquered and it would be their defeat.
Having said that, Redra still wasn’t able to attack her enemies, it wasn’t a situation that they could let continue. Although it was feasible for Redra to just run away for them until the day is over considering her specs, she grew impatient and shouted.
“What should this one do!? Do anything 112, this one definitely can’t fight!”
[… Aah, can’t be helped…]
And so, Ontentoo, who was Dungeon Core No. 112, absolutely had to answer her request. Even if it meant defeat, it wasn’t much of a problem.
*
[Oi Kehma… How about a trade?]
A transmission came from Ontentoo while we were stalling for time transporting the set of dragon goods… A trade huh.
“Depends on the contents. What do you mean by trade?”
[Give us that crystal figurine. Then, you can pass the fifth floor.]
… In other words, they’re fine losing if they get the crystal figurine. That kind of thing.
[Incidentally… it’d be great if you didn’t use a trick that kept Redra from being able to attack.] “Giving you the figurine to past the fifth floor is fine, but I’m hard to please… It’d be better if you didn’t interfere with us getting to the final floor.”
[Ah? Aah… In that case you’d fight Redra. The last boss room is no good. Everything else is fine.]
Eh, can I? I only wanted to say it though.
Rather, it felt like something was a bit off in that statement just now. Is it because of the absolute command rights?
[It’s a lot better than making holes on each floor of our dungeon to keep it from flooding. We’ll settle this with a do-over at the original boss room to decide the battle. How about it?]
I see, looks like getting flooded is quite a hard thing.
In truth, it’d probably be a serious matter for their monsters if they got flooded.
“… Then do not obstruct us from here on until the boss room. Release locked doors and traps. There’ll be a one hour intermission.”
[Alright! Trade complete. Oi Redraaa, one hour cease fire!]
And so, we restarted with strangely advantageous conditions.
*
“Gunununu…”
“Oooi, didn’t you say do anything, Redra?”
“B-but we lost the dungeon battle… sorry, 112! For this one, you…”
Redra was being unusually meek, but Ontentoo just laughed it off.
“What’re you saying? I mean, we didn’t really lose out. Didn’t you get the crystal figurine?”
“But now they can head up to the forty-ninth floor without us resisting…”
“Think you’ll be defeated? Kehma would’ve somehow gotten there from the fifth floor anyways, don’t mind it.”
Moreover, in truth, the dungeon wouldn’t have just been cleared if the water attack continued. It would have flooded every floor, dealing a great deal of harm to the monsters and traps. It was clear that the repair costs alone would’ve exceeded 500,000 DP by itself.
“… That being the case, since we agreed to fight in good spirits, wasn’t the negotiation a win? Redra can be counted on after all.”
“Un… this one will do her best!”
“Yeah, I’ll leave it to you, Redra. You could probably even fight them at full strength for the entire day right? You love it after all.”
“Un!”
Redra was back in high spirits. Ontentoo patted her head in satisfaction.