"… … What does this look like, Erica?"
"Written. Is that a rock shaped like a fox?"
Iris and Erica approached the raccoon-shaped rock step by step. The part that was crushed by the pillar was completely shattered, and the condition of the other parts was not particularly normal either.
Lize had been examining the edge of the rock for some time. Then, when the spot she had been examining collapsed without even touching it, she flinched in surprise.
"Or maybe it's a rock-shaped monster. Do you think such a strangely shaped rock could form naturally?"
"It's impossible. Even if he were to carve it out of stone, it would be impossible to carve the surface so precisely. If there were a sculptor who could carve such a huge shape out of stone, and so perfectly, he would be called around among the nobles and wouldn't have time to come here."
"I think so too."
Iris took off her helmet. Her silver hair flowed down her back.
"Then, I guess the meaning of this rock has been decided."
"no way...."
"Yes. That's right. The corpse of a rock-like monster. No, to be exact, it's part of a corpse. There are traces of it being crushed by a pillar and then cut off."
"The part that remains here is already terrifyingly large, but I guess it must have been even larger originally."
"Yes. It's at least a dozen times higher. My guess is that it's about the same height as the castle we live in."
"Could this be the cause of the vibration?"
Silver eyes scanned the pillars that had been crushed into a raccoon-shaped rock.
The bottom part was shattered and it looked like it had fallen forward. The cross-section was still very sharp and there were stone chips here and there, so it seemed like it had broken not long ago.
It seemed as if it had been continuously impacted in one place and had been destroyed because it could not withstand it, but there were no traces of it actually being hit by a weapon.
"I can't be sure, but it's probably true. For some reason, it seems like it kept hitting the pillar. That's why the pillar broke and ended up like this. The vibrations we felt were definitely caused by the fox hitting the pillar."
"That must be why there were traces left on the wall. Now, it feels like the front and back are starting to fit together a little bit."
Erica thought back to the wide-open space she had passed about ten minutes ago. The rock on the floor had been completely eroded away, and the walls were cracked and even completely collapsed.
At the time, I had no idea why there were such traces of destruction underground, but if this was a landscape created by a fox crashing into a wall and pillar, then it all made sense.
"You saw it exactly. All the strange phenomena we felt can be explained by this fox."
Iris stroked the surface of the rock. The gauntlet she was wearing on her hand prevented her from feeling it, but the sound of it clashing with metal and the hardness of the surface were unmistakable pieces of stone.
If it had been a little less elaborate, if it hadn't looked so much like a raccoon, Iris would have definitely thought it was just a rock.
"Where did the rest go? Did they die?"
The fox's body was severed where it had been crushed by a large rock pillar. Iris jumped lightly and jumped over the pillar. Erica followed right behind.
On the other side of the pillar was a cross-section of a raccoon that had been torn apart horribly. It looked as if something had been used to forcefully tear the joints apart.
"It doesn't seem to be dead. Look here. The joints are cut off unnaturally. It must have been crushed by the rock pillar and then broken off. Either it cut off its own body to escape, or the impact was so great that it was cut off. The front part probably escaped intact."
"That's not very good news."
"It's questionable whether our attack will work. If it were a normal rock, we could break it with just a little more force, but if it's a monster, it would definitely be several times harder than a normal rock."
Erica stared blankly at the roughly torn cross-section of the raccoon-shaped rock. The question of who on earth could have done this crossed her mind for a moment.
It was literally a moment. It was obvious who did this.
"Well, I can probably guess who did this."
"Yeah, this is-"
"It's something our talented rookie did. It's obvious, right?"
Lize jumped over the pillar from her seat and climbed onto it. Then she came down to the other side where Erica and Iris were.
"… … That's right."
Iris nodded her head slightly in agreement. That was what she had been meaning to say. Who else but that brash newbie could have done something like this here?
The dungeon isn't a place you can come to as if you were going for a walk.
"I thought you'd be quiet since you said you'd wait downstairs, but it seems you've already done something grand. You don't even know what's in other people's minds."
"If you want to nag, you can do it after the new recruits join us, Sister. I won't stop you. Iris, we'd better hurry up too."
"Okay. Let's move as fast as we can."
A helmet was placed over her head, covering her silver eyes and silver hair. Lize had already started walking forward. Iris and Erica followed suit.
The thumping sound in the distance began to be heard again.
-Whack!
Advertisements
A sharp stalactite fell onto the head of the rock civet, which was banging its head against the wall and screaming.
The stalactite that hit the rock civet's head shattered into pieces, and the person who had broken the rock with his head also expressed the pain with his whole body, twisting the joints of his exoskeleton with all his might.
That was the gimmick of Phase 3. It was the same as Phase 1, up until the point where you had to bang your head against the wall, but instead of banging it anywhere, you had to make sure it landed in the location of the stalactites on the ceiling.
Then, you'll fall on top of the rock spider's head like you just did. Do that 20 times and you'll clear the level.
By the way, this was the 19th time. Now, if I do it one more time, Phase 3 will be over and I will move on to Phase 4, which can be called the real boss fight.
The rock civet, which had been groaning on its own for a while, raised its body and grumbled. Then, it dug into the rock, gnawing at the ground with its lower jaw, and disappeared.
Because it had already gnawed off the ends of its body that had been stuck on the pillar, it disappeared faster than in Phase 2. Several of its legs, which had been hanging on to its body precariously, fell down with a thud, unable to withstand the impact.
Even after they were separated from the body, they continued to writhe on their own for a long time.
'It's about time for the knight commanders to arrive.'
I briefly wondered where the three I had left above might be now. I wasn't sure since this never happened in the game, but I figured they might have reached somewhere underground.
Of course, this was just a guess. I'm not a computer, and this dungeon itself was much larger than the one in the game, so it was impossible to calculate it accurately.
After I sat down and waited for about a minute, the rock raccoon jumped out. It had a large, clearly visible crack on its face.
After being hit against a wall 20 times, a pillar 20 times, and then a wall 19 times, and then being hit by a stalactite 19 times, it's only natural that your head would get smashed.
I just waited calmly without doing anything. I rolled over the rocks being thrown at me and ran away from the attacks that slammed my body in all directions.
The bastard prepared a charging pattern, his lower jaw clicking as if he was on drugs. As soon as I saw that, I was overwhelmed with the feeling of finally. It was finally time to say goodbye to this dirty bastard.
Anyway, I won't break Phase 4. If I leave it to the three Knight Commanders, they'll take care of it themselves, so why would I move?
'It's a bit of a waste of clear experience points, though.'
You can earn experience points anyway. You can easily earn experience points by defeating gimmick bosses in the early game by spending a few days wandering around.
Besides, the knight commanders are definitely not capable of dying to a rock raccoon or something.
I took a seat in front of the wall where the last stalactite was standing. The rock snail approached slowly, picking up speed. I stood still in front of the wall and did the same thing I had been doing.
-Kuuuung!
And then the same thing happened as we had seen before. The rock cicada banged its head against the wall, then lit itself up, and stalactites fell on it.
The stalactite that had crashed into the rock spider's head with a "Crash!" sound this time split the creature's head in half. The shattered pieces of its head flew in all directions.
The rock raccoon, half of its head blown off, thrashed about more violently than it had ever done before. I retreated to the other side of the wall in advance, lest I should be unlucky enough to get hit by the debris.
'It's finally over.'
I stretched out like that for a long time. It was a tiring boss fight in many ways. I really didn't want to do it again.
The thing didn't even think about digging into the rock, but instead struggled through the nearest crack and disappeared. The gap that seemed too narrow for my body to fit through had become at least three times wider.
If you follow that, the 4th phase will start at the place where the rune is, but there is no need to follow it now. You can wait for Iris, Lize, and Erika here and go together.
I sat down in the spot with the best view of the road and started waiting for the three.
'What should I say?'
I was thinking about how I could say it so that people would understand my actions.