[ARC 1] CHAPTER 25: TITLES FOR A DEMON
Uuuuuhhhh... why meeeeee...?
After Gust's fabulous (sarcasm at Lv.Max) negotiations, we were accepted into the Sahuagin army's headquarters. It was an impressive sight alright. The city was literally carved out of the Dungeon's bedrock, but it was far from what you could call caves. With some modern luxuries like electricity, they could have been sold as high-fancy apartments.
Not that I was in the mood to enjoy the view. Because of the unnecessary meddling of Gust, I was forced to participate in the triumphant return of the Sahuagins and their leader, Virt. Why must someone as socially challenged as me have to join a parade!? And as the guest of honor, on top of the big boss' head!! Please, anyone, give me a hole to hide in!! Only the hood doesn't work!!
As for the idiot that made this mess, he's wrapped up in threads and treated as luggage packed on the Zombie Raptor. Good luck surviving that stench.
The inhabitants of the city were surprised to see the reinforcement group coming back with a demon that covers their face with a hood and is accompanied by undeads, but one word from big boss Virt was enough for them to accept it. Oi! Be more on guard, people!
It was the raptor monsters equipped with bristles that bought the explanation first, then the Sahuagins after the six guys I healed came with their comments. Even so, aren't you guys a little too trusting?
After the parade, I was taken to an old Sahuagin that lived in one of the bigger houses. And I mean old when I say old. He's got this stupid-long beard and was holding a cane. It wouldn't be too strange if he suddenly fell over due to old age.
Sahuagin Elder? That's a new one. From the looks of things, I would say he used to be a warrior, but then changed to medicines? No Pharmacists class though.
"Ooh, so you are the one the younglings were talking about?" - Baphom
"..." - Garami
I gave Gust, which had been transported with us, a bump to signalize it was his turn.
"Oh, yes, this is miss Garami, an adventurer in-name. We are currently on a hunt for a specific monster on this floor, so we were wondering if we could join forces with you guys. It seems like our target and your faction has a bad relationship with each other." - Gust
"...Is it the Quest the Divine Voice told of?" - Baphom
Divine Voice? Ah, I see. It must be what these guys call the System Messages. It's not too far to call it that.
"Yes, that one. And our target is... eeeehhh..." - Gust
Did I forget to mention the boss I wanted to crush? Guess I did. My bad.
"...Queen Aquarect." - Garami
"Yes, that's the one. The Glavras Queen Aquarect. As long as we are the ones to gain the reward for defeating that monster, then we will help you with the remaining two. Our miss here has already incapacitated the Glavras snake monster that led the surprise attack-force right before, so there-" - Gust
"You defeated the serpent of magic!?" - Baphom
That's some reaction. Even his beard bristled out in every direction due to the shock. All the other monsters looked at me in shock and awe. Should I tell them that I only negotiated with him? Probably not. I know how to read a mood.
"Well, he will no longer be a threat to us..." - Gust
"Oh, thank you, or savior. We had almost lost all hope when that wretched snake joined up with the three monsters of the Dungeon. It may have been only a few times, but its nightly ambushes had driven us to the point of exhaustion." - Baphom
Turns out that the power balance between the Sahuagin faction and the Glavras faction was shattered by the seldom sneak attacks by the boss-snake due to its ability to operate in the dark that the other three boss monsters lacked. The Sahuagins that were exhausted by the warfare during the day had little to nothing to fight against the boss-snake during the night, so the plantation of medicinal herbs and other facilities were lost due to the boss-snake's attacks.
The more I listened to the old Sahuagin's talk, the more I'm certain that it was the right choice to have the boss-snake retreat without a fight. Unlike the other bosses, the snake actually used its brains to fight rather than talking with its muscles. For the Sahuagins with less-than-average intelligence, he was the worst enemy for them to face.
Not gonna tell them that it was me who released the snake onto this floor though. Nope. Never!
"Again, we are thankful for your aid, the one called Garami. But most of our warriors have fallen due to the lack of medicines-" - Baphom
"Elder! This person can help us with that!" - Sahuagin
Who's that? Ah, right. Those guys again, the ones I saved. Wait, let me guess...
"This person is capable us healing people with her magic! She is the owner of the legendary healing magic!" - Sahuagin
Eh? Why're these guys so gung ho on recovery-type magic? Can't you get at least one of those spells with an Element Magic Skill? I asked Gust on the private [Telepathy] channel, and it seems like Sahuagins are a tribal race of Demi-Humans, so information regarding certain skills or classes that's common knowledge to the other humanoids may not be known to them. Even more so when they've been stuck in a Dungeon for who knows how long. It may have been generations since they met an outsider other than us.
"...Want to recover? The wounded?" - Garami
"Can you!? Please, do so! But, the reward..." - Baphom
"Just continue to fight the Dungeon. That's good enough. And a place to sleep" - Garami
"That shall be done! By all means, take residence here in the elder's mansion. We will gather all the wounded by tomorrow morning." - Baphom
Ugh, I wanted a more calming place to crash, not the biggest home in town, but whatever! They better have some good beds here.
---
And yeah, the beds turned out to be trash. I made a hammock in my room, but the fact that I could produce threads made the Sahuagins change from admire me to straight out worship me. How rugal are their lives anyway!?
It's only the dinos' help that has allowed them to reach this far. I won't accept any other explanation.
Anyway, after a breakfast made mostly of half-burned monster meat (these guys need to work on some [Cooking] skill), I was taken to a large hall where all the wounded had gathered.
Halfway in the Heal-train, I got a new title again.
SYSTEM MESSAGE:
Acquired title: [Rescuer]
Acquired skill: [Healing Magic Lv.1]
Acquired skill: [Glow Bullet Lv.1]
"Dark Heal" spell has been added to [Darkness Magic Lv.9] and [Healing Magic Lv.1]
Not surprising, but the new Magic Skill came in handy. [Healing Magic] contains every type of healing spell, no matter the attribute, That Dark Heal was automatically unlocked with it was a bonus I didn't expect, but I'm not complaining either!
The recovery amount isn't that higher when compared to Heal, but Dark Heal also recovers status ailments and debuffs to stats. Or that's what it was supposed to be, but a single Dark Heal does the job for 10 Heals for the price of one, even when not considering the debuff-removal.
What the heck, the Champion of Darkness ain't no joke!
I switched to use Dark Heal, but damn, the Sahuagin society is bigger than I first thought. It's around 600 of them here, counting the raptor monsters. And 30% of them require medics after the loss of the Sahuagin's medicine garden. That snake sure knows how to piss off people.
Since there's a break time between each battle between the fractions, I was forced to teach the Sahuagins and raptor monsters about skills, magic, and classes now when we had the chance. I wanted to leave this work to Gust, but he left with a group to recover the moles.
As for how to teach the monsters, I depended on writing. It took some time to get used to the tribal language of the Sahuagins, but [Language Adaption] fixed that.
Since the Sahuagins favored the spear, or more precisely, the trident, I taught them the requirements to obtain the Spearsman class to the warriors, while teaching several Artisan classes to the non-combatants. Most of those classes require a Legacy Quest, but they can be completed simply by having the Class Grimoire for that class, like the Book of the Dead is for Spectermancers.
I also taught them about magic, some typical magic formulas, what kind of skills that they need to use magic, and let's not forget how to obtain the Magic Skills. [Water Magic] was the most popular one. What a surprise~.
I noticed that the three bosses of the Sahuagins also studied the scripts I had written on the city walls with my threads. Or maybe "guardian deities" are a better word for it? They've been with the Sahuagins for 18 years now, since when the trio met the tribe at Floor 3 of this Dungeon. That was before I was even born!
There's Virt the spinosaurus, the leader of the trio, Sent the dark-yellow ankylosaurus and the best right-hand man ever, apparently, and finally, Riri the raptor, but this is a different variant from the Glavras raptors. She's more of an ordinary lizard with limbs of around equal length.
Virt's what you could call a jack-of-all, but damn he does his stuff better than a jack. He also seemed interested in the Swordsman class, but Virt, you need to hold a sword to get that class, not be a sword. He's aiming for skills that let him use magic as well. Does he wanna complete the set of strength, defense, speed, and magic?
The [Virtuous Heart] skill caught my attention as it improves the morale and abilities of all of the skill user's allies, while not being limited to having some connection with other Leadership Skills, like those Royalty-skills I have.
The downside is that you need 150 or more positive Karma Value... Impossible for me!
That's one defense festival. This is the first time I've seen an Immunity skill outside my [Heretic Immunity]. I mean, what the heck!?
Not to forget that Sent can be fast if he puts his mind into it, and with the [Water Blast] skill added, he's like a living tank! The [Heavy Blow] skill fits him more than [Steel Strike], as the latter's just an attack with added durability to your limbs, while the former gets additional attack power based on the skill holder's weight.
Could I even dent him if I fought against him? And I heard he's gonna aim for the Guardian class? As if he needed more defense? Don't joke with me!
Riri's stats aren't super-high like the other two's... still high though. On the other hand, she's got a more speed-based build than the other two. I think she's planning on taking the Rogue class, including several magic-based skills.
The Sahuagins gained more than just knowledge. The ones who are planning on taking the Weaver class are training with the threads I made with [Spider Lord's Thread], so they'll have better armor than before.
The moles have also been added to the tribe, meaning the quality of their provisions and medical herbs are gonna increase as well.
As for me? I'm getting to keep most of the corpses of the enemy monsters. Turns out I'm not allowed to touch the Sahuagin corpses. Some kinda religious problems. Gotta stay clear of stuff like that.
Despite such small hinders, the teaching of the Sahuagin tribe went almost without problems. If I just could stay outta public sight... this is too stressful for me!!
---
And the day of the battle. Finally. Why do they need a three days breaktime anyway? Are the boss monsters that hurt each battle?
I'm participating though. I'm watching the battle back at the Sahuagin city with the old telescope I found in the castle. Kinda feel more pirate-ish than what one would expect from a knight castle...
"*Moooole!*" - Moles
My partner in viewing the show ain't Gust, but Moles, the newly named leader of the moles. The very same guy that brought me and Gust together. And yes, it was I who named him. Got a problem?
This is one guy that doesn't like fighting! But why the two hiding skills? Eh, because you want the same [Stealth]-skill as me? Aww, you sweetheart~.
But that's not important. The battlefield's weird. And not because Virt and the others are losing.
Quite the contrary, they're kicking butt!
In one corner is Virt dashing around as if his big body was made of feathers, slicing and dicing any unfortunate monster in his path. Facing him is the hydra/tortoise boss, the Glavras Hydraortoise. It must be using a combo of [Water Blast] + [Torrent] to create blasts of water it spews from its many heads. It's like watching a Water attribute dragon's breath attack!
But Virt ran around the pseudo-breaths and cut off one of the tortoise's many necks! ...Only for a new head to grow where the missing one was in less than 10 seconds!? What's up with that regenerating ability? As expected of something with "hydra" in its name.
A little distance away from there again is Sent sending tons of Glavras monsters flying by slamming his hammer-like tail into the ground, creating a local mini-earthquake. The only one still standing is the Glavras Rexus, the C-rank evolution of the raptor species, which is also the evolution Sent and the other two would have taken normally.
The Glavras Rexus is nothing short of a marine-colored T-Rex, with a bite that even Sent seems to want to avoid. And for some reason, his mouth explodes. No kiddin'! Turns out that's the T-Rex's countermeasure against the Sahuagins, by taking Explosion attribute skills and develop them into a fiery breath. Maybe something like "explosion fang" and some defensive skills for his mouth and jaw?
Riri is leading the Sahuagins that's newly obtained the Rider class as opposed to those wishing for the Spearsman class. Their speed makes it difficult to focus on them, as they strike the Glavras monsters.
However, no matter how strange all the abovementioned facts are, there's one more-
"*Mole*, *mole*." - Moles
"Mhm. No spider queen, but tons of weaklings." - Garami
A good 90% of the mobs that support the hydra and the T-Rex is Glavras Aquarects and General Aquarects, but the all-important Queen's nowhere to be seen. And an equally important question is where they've hidden all these Generals. Around 40% of their forces consist of them!
"*Moooole*" - Moles
"I agree. The spider's suspicious." - Garami
It's planned for me to spy on the Glavras faction's base of operation after healing the war team when they returned. The medics still don't have any decent medicines yet, and the elder is busy with a certain something along with Gust, meaning it's [Healing Magic]'s time in the spotlight.
The war's gonna keep the stalemate situation, so I'll wait for the others while practicing some Necromancy. I've obtained most of the corpses that weren't too damaged to become undeads, but I've never had the time due to all the teaching and collapsing in bed from the stress afterward.
Oh yeah, speaking of undeads, it seems they can't give EXP. They're more like magic in the form of corpses than real undeads, so there's no EXP to gain. I had Gust and the moles defeat the Skeleton Frog and Zombie Raptor, but no result, even after sacrificing an additional Skeleton Raptor to Gust's growth. He barely managed to crush the thing by pushing a big rock on it. Long live the small fries secret method of power-leveling!
Due to the experiments, I only have a single Skeleton Raptor left, so I'm in dire need to restock my personal army. I'll start with a tortoise corpse. Please give me a real meatwall zombie to hide behind~...
*Splat!*
Yeah, didn't think so. Then over to a Glavras snake then.
*Splat!*
Aw, come on! Then, a raptor?
*Splat!*
What's this, a comedy routine? If I keep this going, then the tortoise I've planned next will also fail, therefore...
*Splat!*
...Taking a surprise twist by using a snake already didn't work either. Argh, now I don't give a damn! Next!
*Glow*
Oh! Jackpot! Finally. But a Skeleton tortoise... may not be so bad? It's retained its shell, so it can be used as a shield... probably?
SYSTEM MESSAGE:
Class: [Spectermancer] has reached Lv.10
Acquired skill: [Necromantic Rite Lv.1]
And here's another jackpot! I'm getting closer and closer to Necromancer! I'll check it out after seeing what this guy can do.
SYSTEM MESSAGE:
Skill: [Identification] has reached Lv.40.
[Title Identification] has been added to [Identification Lv.40]
Oh, ooooohhhh!! Titles have appeared!! Then without further ado, let's Identify!
Achievement Titles:
Hunting Titles:
Status Titles:
They popped up. And they seem to be divided? A little [Discern], and... I see.
"Achievement Titles" appears to be your average type of titles, while "Hunting Titles" are a special series that depends on how many creatures of one kind you kill, and their difficulty level seems to count more than the easier guys? Like more EXP for the title with stronger enemies?
"Status Titles" don't refer to the Status Page, but rather, your social status. I guess that a real king's Status Title is gonna be one heck of a view. For some reason, it seems like three of mine's bugged out. Wait, when did I get them?
...[Identification] don't do anything on them, so there's nothing else I can do but to hope for some update of the World System or something. Better hope they're not real bugs.
The other titles are viable and Identifiable, so let's have a look before the war-group returns.
I already knew about that one, but better be safe.
...yeah, I'm a bad person.
And who's writing these "descriptions" anyway?
Hey! Why do I have to take more damage now because of this thing!? Damn...
I agree there. The [Glow Bullet] skill is a nice method for Priests, or whoever it may be, to defend themselves while saving others.
On another note, I found out that there's a Shot-skill for all the 10 Basic attributes except for Order and Chaos. I bought [Gloom Bullet] right after that.
As for the Hunting Titles:
I got the last one when I almost hunted the rats on this floor to extinction when I wanted to grind [Create Undead]. Kinda forgot about it since it's not that useful to me.
Then there are the Status Titles. Ignoring the three bugged ones, there are...
Hey! That's rude. I'm only thinking outside the box...
"*Mole*! *Mole*!" - Moles
I looked up to Moles, still standing on the top of the wall covering the city. What's that? The army group's back already? But I haven't tested out my new skill yet!!
Urgh, fine... It's my job and all that. Wait, I'm supposed to be a bad guy, right?
Greydra
Kigal-Note/Humanoids/Demi-Humans: Sahuagin
Description:
Sahuagins are humanoid fish creatures that live in lakes or the ocean. They live in tribes and with a rural lifestyle, something that makes them sometimes be mistaken for Demi-monsters.
Sahuagins believe in a religion where their ancestors are their gods in addition to the belief in the twelve Ultimate Gods.
They are a warrior race and earn the local currency by trading monster materials or other items accessible only to the aquatic Sahuagins with traders and merchants that visit them from time to time.
Appearance:
The Sahuagins have the appearance of various types of fish with additional humanoid limbs. Their skin colors vary between the locations where the tribe lives. A lake-living Sahuagin will gain light-green skin, while an ocean-living one will gain more marine colors. This adaption to their environment works as a primitive type of camouflage for the Sahuagins.
Abilities:
The Sahuagins are experts in naval warfare, but they can fight on an equal level as other humanoids on dry land. They have a natural talent for spear weapons, especially the trident.
They work well in groups with other Sahuagins and are easy to work along with other species. The Danger Rank of a group of Sahuagins can easily reach a rank of E if their group is large enough. Even more so when they cooperated with other species.
Gust's comment: Oi, partner. You're losing to fish people in terms of cooperation.
[ARC 1] CHAPTER 26: INFILTRATION ROUTE, SECURED
I ran over the rocky hills that made up the outer border of the floor, aiming for the Glavras faction's HQ.
It's been two days after the first battle against the Glavras faction after I joined the Sahuagin team and I'm aiming to reach their lair today. J
I've used these last nights in charting the area, which turned out to be a pain since I couldn't be allowed to be seen by the Glavras monsters without the whole plan going to hell. Not that there's a plan yet, due to a lack of information...
Ah, a rat. I climbed up the rocks and hid in the dark of the night. I then threw a pebble down the path. The rat came looking for the noise, and boom! One Piercing Thread right in the back of its neck!
SYSTEM MESSAGE:
Acquired title: [Mysterious Killer]
Acquired skill: [Surprise Attack Lv.1]
Acquired skill: [Stealth Lv.1]
Skill: [Ambush Lv.13] has been integrated into skill: [Surprise Attack Lv.1]
Skill: [Stealth Lv.1] has been integrated into skill: [Stealth Lv.29]
And I got a title for it as well! I Identified the title, and it seems the lesser versions of the rewards are needed to clear the conditions to obtain the title, so the reward is a straight-out upgrade.
But, assassinate without being discovered? As in killing them before they notice they're being attacked? No wonder I didn't get it before now. All my attacks were a step away from being "insta-kills". Wonder if there's a "trapper" title out there...
No matter, time to clean up. I jumped down to the path again and activated [Necromantic Rite]. A dark magic circle, more complex than the one for [Create Undead], appeared and dragged the rat corpse into itself with many hands made of darkness.
<[Necromantic Rite] have acquired plans for the following undeads:
"Lesser Skeleton Rat", "Lesser Zombie Rat".>
<[Necromantic Rite] acquired "1" Material.>
And there came the report.
[Necromantic Rite] does not make use of the corpses directly like [Create Undead] does. Instead, it takes in many different corpses, generating blueprints for both Skeletons and Zombies.
Ah, there's blood remains. Clean, Clean, the Clean spell from [Magic Ability]~. No evidence left~.
Back to the Rite. After obtaining the blueprints, I can then use [Necromantic Rite] alongside [Create Undead] to make the undead of my choice. And there's no fault for failing! No more splat for me~!
In other words, I've now got the [Necromantic Rite] that allows me to make blueprints for undeads, the [Create Undead] to form them from the materials also stored in [Necromantic Rite], and finally, [Control Undead] to make them do my bidding. The Unholy Trinity of Necromancy!! The beginner level, anyway.
The downside is the costs. A single undead requires "[Racial Rank * 10] * Size" of the Materials stored in [Necromantic Rite], with G-Ranks being 1 and it keeps on increasing from there. Size refers to Mini (0.5), Tiny (1), Small (2), Medium (5), Big (7), and Huge (10).
Mini is the size of an ordinary rat, Tiny is the same as a cat, Small is around a normal human, Medium is to even 3 meters, Big is up to 10, and Huge takes over from there again.
Obtaining Materials is a pain though. I mean, I would need to collect 10 rats to create a single undead one. And to make things worse, even the tortoise, the biggest E-Rank Glavras monster, only gives 1 Material when "converted"! You gotta be...
On the other hand, the undeads created only with [Create Undead] have their weaknesses. Sure, you can obtain one through a single corpse, even if it's a gamble for the higher-ranked creatures, but the created undead is a fake. The Skeleton version of the rat isn't Bone Rat, but Lesser Skeleton Rat. The names of these fake undeads are something my subconsciousness came up with. And since they're fakes, they cannot obtain levels, nor gain proficiency with their skills.
But the undeads made through [Necromantic Rite] can do so. And more even. I can add more body parts to them, for a price, add classes, for a price, and customize their skills, NOT for a price! Can you believe that? Not that all undeads can get a class though.
Even some of my skills can be slapped onto the undead, but only when Rite's skill level reaches 25. When I reach the point of being a novice Necromancer, I can even copy my skill's current skill level.
These Custom Undeads can be stored as templates, and I have access to 1 template for every 10 of Spectermancer's class levels. If I reach Necromancer, it's 5 + 1 for every class level, plus what I had as a Spectermancer.
Ah, and you can suck up items with Rite as well when it reaches a certain level, allowing you to dress up certain undeads with equipment the moment you call them. There will be an additional "Item Capacity" I need to look after, but no biggie.
The total amount of Materials I can store at once with [Necromantic Rite] is the same as the skill's level times 10... then it gets multiplied by [100 * [Evil Royalty]'s skill level] gets added. So, yeah, I can store up to 3 * 10 * 100 = 3.000 Materials. Woooooow. And I'll regain all the Materials used if I retrieve the undeads I make? Score! You gotta think green these days.
As a final note, the EXP the undeads earn will be saved, allowing you to add that EXP to a new undead after you dismiss the first one. Or I can convert it to my EXP... but only 0.01%. The amount gets better when you obtain Necromancer, but not much. Geez...
With that out of the way, I made some Lesser Skeleton Rats with the 50 Materials I had on hand. 5 rats, adding some search skills... what do you mean I can't add [Magic Sight]? Too low level with Rite? Fine~, then we'll take [Stealth]... no good. Oh, but I can give [Hiding] and/or [Covert Movement] instead? Then let's give both~.
Now, run rats, run! Find me the demon king's castle! Just kiddin'~.
---
Oh my... they found the castle...
A huge, castle-like structure stood before me. It looks like it's grown up from the ground, but the real reason is that they must have carved it out from the bedrock like with the Sahuagin city. Or, is calling it a tower a better way to say it? Yes, let's go with "tower".
Using the rats as scouts turned out to be a good idea. I gave them the order of locating any large numbers of Glavras monsters, then lead me to them. Cut the search time by quite the amount.
I looked down from above on the rocky cliffs and yup. That's a lot of Glavrases. Spider here, spider there, another spider... aren't there too many spiders on patrol? Where are the raptors? Tortoises? Not even some snakes?
I finally found some variety from the spiders in the form of the hydra-tortoise and the T-Rex. They had some subordinates around them, but not many... and why aren't the bosses inside the last-boss tower? Why're they camping right in front of it? Or... are they guarding it?
Seems like this place has a secret more important than two Floor Bosses. Time to go sneaky, sneaky~.
But, how to infiltrate? The tower's positioned so it's enclosed by the Dungeon walls, leaving only one path to it from the outside, which is guarded by the boss monsters. Unfortunately for me, there's quite a distance between the walls and the castle. Way too far for someone to jump across normally. The closest distance should be around 20 meters.
...wait, isn't that too short? Even without [Sky Jump], I could reach that with some threads... ah. People probably don't invest in jumping skills normally. Not with stuff like magic available.
Even so, not thinking that someone with a crossbow and some rope would come by is like asking for someone to break in... is that the reason? Is this a trap!? Naw, I'm overthinking things.
I dismissed the rats, walked some steps away, then ran towards the edge. When I jumped, I felt the now-familiar repulsive force from [Sky Jump] and leaped into the air. The force of the skill had sent me halfway across the gap. I timed it, and activated [Sky Jump] again, allowing me to reach the opening.
And she sticks the landing! All the stealth skills should have kept my entrance a secret for the guards below at least. Those spiders have weak night vision, and then there's the problem with their non-existing necks to see upward.
But what about the inside? I looked around and found... nothing. Seriously nothing. Not even the floor!
The inside of the tower was empty. Faint marks revealed that there had been rooms and stairs before, but they had all been destroyed, leaving a hollow tower behind.
The single "room" was around the same as a baseball stadium in width, but the height was around 40 meters. I'm just below the "top floor", on the remains of one of the rooms that had been there. I looked down from my ledge and saw many remains of the other floors had created fragile bridges across the space. And down below on the ground floor was something that I didn't wanna see.
The temple was clad in the darkness of the "night", so it was easy to climb down undetected. I've not used the [Climbing] skill lately, but it seems like I still got it.
And yeah, this here's something you don't wanna see.
A spider, bigger than a truck. And I'm talking about those big-ass haul trucks they use for high-production mining. Even if it's only the abdomen part.
The rest of the spider is of the same size as the General spiders, but only the abdomen has grotesquely out of propositions. It makes me think of queen ants. The "front" of the spider is covered in a tar-colored exoskeleton, but the abdomen lacked that, revealing a large slab of pulsating, red meat.
Ugh, disgusting. The only reason I can stomach it is due to my "training" with necromancy and having eaten raw monster flesh all my life.
This is a bad one. And ignore that it has only 12 skills here, cause this is an example of quality winning over quantity.
I mean, it has two stats over 1,000!! And they're both Life Stats! Not to mention the evolved [HP Greater-Recovery] skill. Why did an HP tank suddenly pop up from an army of water-blasting stormtroopers?
Then it's those Skill Points. How did it get that many? Did the Dungeon give it a Skill Point allowance or something? It can buy any skills it wants to counteract any threats while waiting for reinforcement. And those Life Stat skills make it even worse to kill!
And that's not the worst. It has Extra Skills.
Extra Skills are skills that are not categorized with other skills, either due to their overwhelming powers or due to their strangeness. These skills have only 10 skill levels, but even a single Lv.1 Extra Skill could topple several maxed skills in terms of performance.
This does not extend to all Extra Skills, as some are stronger than others. The risks that come with these skills make some of them pretty much unusable, or they are activated on their own without the user's input. Won't that make them any better than curses then?
But, to my disdain, the Queen's skills are of the "good and easy to use" type.
[Parthenogenesis] is a freak of a skill that lets you mass-produce tons of weaker variants of yourself with barely any costs. You can even temper with their racial levels and stats!
But, these are like the undeads I can create when using [Create Undead] directly on corpses. They're fakes, better described as magic in the shape of monsters. But these "magic spells" have all the functions of the real deal, so it has a status and everything else. The only thing different is that the EXP they give is too minuscule to be worth anything. I mean, they're spells, not monsters, no matter how well made they are.
Add that with the [Kin Sovereignty] skill, which is a flat upgrade of the [Kin Domination] to the roach queen, and you get an army that never goes empty of soldiers.
Then comes the [EXP Robber (Kin)] skill. It's a derivate of the [EXP Robber] skill that Gust mentioned to me when he taught me about Extra Skills.
When a creature dies, the killer gains the aether of the creature in the form of what's called "EXP" by the World System, according to the amount of damage they inflicted on the killed party. But one cannot obtain more EXP than a certain value, as the remaining aether returns to the world. There are exceptions though, such as Dread Spirits.
The [EXP Robber] skill, on the other hand, can steal more of the aether that should be returned to the world, making it an EXP-boosting skill. It could even rob the EXP from prey that others had killed as well, allowing the owner of the skill to simply lay back while others do their dirty work. Skills such as [Tame] that grants EXP to other parties simply divide the EXP obtained rather than snitching the excessive aether.
The (Kin) derivated skill is kinda different. It takes the EXP from the killer of the kin and gives it all to the skill user. Meaning, no matter how many spiders Virt and the rest kill, it all goes to the momma spider instead. The skill even converts the body of the spiders into EXP so the Queen gets an extra treat. Makes you feel like this variant is more specialized than the original, rather than being a weaker version.
Kinda makes you wonder why they didn't do a spider stampede in the beginning. Were the skills too low-leveled to do that then? In that case, I need to throw this Queen off her throne, fast. These things have almost reached the halfway line to being maxed out!
But, how am I supposed to deal with that walking mass of HP? Even if I figured something out, that thing could just through a Resistance Skill to counteract my plan and jack up the skill with the remaining Points. Then it just needs to push on with mass-produced spiders, and if I take too long, the other two bosses could come in those massive front doors and join the scramble.
So yeah, I can only beat the Queen when the other two are on the battlefield. A large number of spiders should leave with them, but the Queen can just generate more if needed. Not that I have to fear the soldiers, but the Generals could be nasty, but not impossible to beat. They're newborns after all. Experience can triumph over stats sometimes.
But the Queen herself is impossible.
I've saved all my Skill Points since I started with my necromancy training, save for 1 point for the [Gloom Bullet] skill and 3 for [Light Reinforcement], but I can't imagine any skill I can obtain with the Points I have that can take down that thing. At least, not at Lv.1.
Even if I boosted its skill level, I don't think a single skill would have that power. Not one that you can obtain without any special means.
And I can't bring with me any reinforcements through the way I came in with. Some Sahuagins, maybe, but they would be useless if they enter from the top of the tower. Too big of a group would be spotted before we came close enough.
...Let's return to Gust and the rest. This isn't something I can figure out on my own. Not while I'm hiding in the shadows from a massive spider queen anyway.
Greydra
Kigal-Note/Monsters/Arachnids: Glavras Queen Aquarect
Description:
A spider monster that is the primogenitor for the Aquarect species in the "Water-Knot of Glavras" Dungeon.
The Queen acts like an ant queen, birthing workers that do all their work for her who are incapable of moving due to her size.
Appearance:
The Glavras Queen Aquarect has the appearance of a tar-black General Aquarect, save for her abdomen, which is bigger than a two-story house. The abdomen lacks an exoskeleton, revealing the red flesh of the spider.
Abilities:
The Queen herself lacks in almost any form of battle abilities, mostly due to its disproportionate size.
Due to that, the Queen has no other choice but to birth warriors to cover for her and hunt food for her.
On the other hand, the Queen is solid as a fortress and owns several skills to recover from any damage it takes. As the Queen herself cannot move, the army of Aquarects determined the Danger Rank of the Queen.
Garami's comment: A huge pest is the worst pest!
[ARC 1] CHAPTER 27: TOWER CRUSHING
The day of battle had arrived. Or rather, the second day.
After reporting my findings to Virt and the Sahuagin Elder, we hatched a certain plan to defeat the spider. If those guys didn't have to be so against my ideas, then we could have finished the planning way faster... we still needed to wait for a "battle day", so I guess it's fine.
The hydra-tortoise and the T-Rex left the tower with the newly-created spider troops. There are also some raptors and tortoises mixed in the army, but the spiders are the norm by now. They're the only soldiers that can be mass-produced after all. Do they add the raptors and tortoise to the army in an attempt to hide that fact?
After confirming that the big bad guys had left, I climbed around the tower back to the window I had used six days before when I was scouting. I peered down into the tower and saw the spider queen in her lonesome... sans for some spiders that remained as guards.
I've done a great job of staying outside the Glavras monster's information network, so they don't know that I'm part of the Sahuagin side. Even if they somehow knew of my existence, as long as they don't know I have the Sahuagin's back, then things are a-okay.
Even so, I've not just twiddled my thumbs while waiting for this day.
There you go~. Still no Light Technique User despite my Light-skill training...
I climbed to the top of the tower, which was just a few meters from the roof of the Dungeon itself where Gust was hiding from the Glavras forces while waiting for the Go-sign.
"Hey, are we seriously doing this?" - Gust
"...Chicken?" - Garami
"No, I'm a raven! I just don't like this idea at all! Have you no mercy?" - Gust
"None at all." - Garami
"Only stuff like that comes easily from that nasty mouth of yours..." - Gust
How rude. But I agree with my whole heart~.
"...Get ready for the show." - Garami
"You mean the plan, right? You don't see this only as a game, right!?" - Gust
I can't hear~, I can't hear~.
"Showtime!" - Garami
"You aren't taking this serious enough!!" - Gust
---
*KA-BOOOOOM!!!*
Wo-HOOO!! That's one heck of a blast!
The bomb I had dropped down the tower gave an ear-deafening roar that must have been heard across the whole Floor, if not the Dungeon. The bottom of the tower was blasted to smitheries, while the top flew into the air before falling loudly down to the ground again.
I and Gust had hidden behind some of the boulders on the mountain road, several meters below the blast area, but we still felt the force of the blast that flew up from the edge.
"That alone should have killed it!" - Gust
...He had to say a line like that, didn't he?
I ran to the edge to confirm, and just as I expected, the spider queen emerged from the rubbles that used to be the tower that guarded it. It got a massive burn on its back, but except for that, it looked peachy. I can't use [Identification] from this distance, but I would say that a good 500 or more HP went with that blast.
And now the wounds are recovering so fast I can see the effect with my bare eyes. Oi, oi, bosses shouldn't have regen you know? Not that I didn't know about it beforehand.
I jumped down from the edge and down to the ground floor... with a safety thread.
The queen locked on to me, so I threw some threads into the Storage to take out some gifts for her majesty. The two boulders were thrown out of the Storage with the combined effort of [Shooting] and [Thread Control].
It's an upgrade of the trick I used on the Wild Hunt Lord, but alas, the Queen had more tricks up her sleeve than the skill-less Lord or the no-brains roach queen.
The Queen inhaled quickly and used a [Water Blast] several times bigger than what the lower-ranked Aquarects could perform. I gave up my attack and prioritized dodge the blast by running across the wall thanks to [Lightwalk] and the safety thread. While doing so, I took out a certain something and shot it towards the Queen with [Shooting].
*CRASH!*
I took a glance at where I had been, something I now wish that I didn't. It looked like a meteorite had collided with the wall. A real crater with its center where I had been now decorated the wall. How can you call that a "water blast"? It would be better to name it a pressure cannon!
The Queen tried to move her body with her wounded legs, but they suddenly gave up on her. Kukuku, it's working, it's working~. It's important, therefore I said it twice.
Did it read my thoughts or something? And it kept on spending points to increase its two new Resistance Skills while I was spacing out. I fired all the bullets made with [Glow Bullet] through my Thaumaturge Revolver at the spider to stop it.
The thing I threw at the Queen blasted away with her newly obtained and boosted [Pressure Cannon] was a special toxic tonic that the Sahuagin created. It used parts of every poison I won from the Floor 3 Quest except for the Hydra poison. He just got the Pharmacist class and can already make something this dangerous? Talented geezers are scary...
It wasn't an easy assignment though. There were tons of failures. One of them resulted in a poison that didn't do any damage, but the smell was so horrible you would want for it to be an insta-kill variant. I speak of experience.
But yeah, this ain't gonna work. The decrease is slowing down with each added level to the Resistance Skills. If I could throw one more bottle at the Queen and get a Rage, Sleep, or Confusion ailment... but the first one only worked so well because I hit it in the face, or rather, its eyes. If I move to its front, I could get blasted with its [Pressure Cannon] again.
Suddenly, tons of magic circles appeared around the Queen. From them, appeared, no, spawned several Glavras Aquarects. No Generals? Phew.
That's the only blessing in disguise though. Now it's gonna be way harder to get to the Queen. I threw the dagger at the Queen in hope that I could coat the other daggers I had in poison, but nope. Even the abdomen that lacked an exoskeleton is too tough for even a [Shooting]-boosted dagger to penetrate.
The Aquarects started their water-blasting bombardment at me. The floor's no good, it's a flood of spiders down there. So I had no other choice than to run along the wall at high speed to dodge the blasts.
I dodged most of the attacks, but sometimes I was forced to used Arrow Guard to block the few successful hits, but all of this is draining my SP! I used the Evil Eye to weaken some of the spiders, but there are too many of them! And if I start to kill the spiders, the Queen will just get more EXP. That's something I can't allow. The poison may be negated due to the level up!
The good news is that the Queen is too busy by the pain that comes from the poison and the stiffness from the Paralyze to think of the idea of having the spiders kill themselves to give her EXP. Or maybe it already knows of that move, but does not want to give the orders? Nah, it's probably too stupid.
*Snap*
They did it! A spider with more wits than the rest aimed at the safety thread rather than me! A single blast from a newborn spider is nowhere enough to cut the [Spider Lord's Thread], but once all the other spiders thought of the same idea...
I jumped off the wall and aimed to land on one of the spiders. If it's come to this, then it's time for a brawl!
The spiders charged towards me, but I kicked the closest ones while being boosted by [Energy Warfare]. That single kick took more of my MP and SP than creating and manipulating threads does, but the result was worth it. The kicked spider was sent flying like a bullet and crashed into several other spiders. That's what happens when you gang up like that...
Yeah, these numbers are bad. There are, what, a hundred weakling spiders here now? More than enough for a level to the Queen.
Let's change gears. Running and stalling!
The spiders now getting that a fistfight with me would be a bad move, shifted back to their long-range tactics with [Water Blasts]. Did you think that amateurs spiders such as yourself can hit me while I'm on solid ground? When Legion of One gives my SPD a boost of 1% for each of you guys?
Just before the water blasts were about the hit, I dodged them with a speed that shocked the spiders out of their minds. If I got too close to a spider, I slashed it with the new dagger I had taken out from the Storage, Yes, this is the close-range weapon for me.
But lowering the number of spiders will lower my speed while giving EXP to the Queen, so let's try a different strategy. I jumped up to the wall and kicked it to get high enough to land on top of the Queen.
Urgh, this is disgusting to even stand on. I retrieved a large number of threads from the Storage and used [Thread Control] to cover the whole area.
The spiders, which were still confused about where I had run off to with my boosted speed, were covered by the carpet thread, stuck in place. Even the Queen's covered!
Even so, this won't last, will it? The Queen can still move somewhat, and it keeps on recovering from the poison...
Eh, it should be fine now. The Queen's used up all of its Skill Points with the distractions, so let's spring the real killer trap on it.
---
Four days ago...
"Huh? Can the spider queen breathe underwater?" - Boss snake
While the battle between the Glavras faction and the Sahuagins raged on, I had returned to Floor 6 to meet with the boss snake. An easy feat, since he didn't even bother to hide while lazing around in the former abyss-level.
"To think you found out about that fat lady." - Boss snake
"Answer." - Garami
"Yes, yes, fine. I owe you so much for letting me escape those doofuses. As for your question, no. None of us Glavras kinds can breathe underwater without some special means." - Boss snake
Wow, he told me just like that. And I was ready to threaten him by ratting him out to the Glavras faction. Not that I could...
"But if you are going after the Queen Aquarect, don't get any stupid ideas. That thing is too big to move around normally, and its lair ain't below ground level even if you had the means of transporting that much water. And that thing wouldn't move close to big bodies of water since it's heavy enough to sink to the bottom in less than ten seconds." - Boss snake
"...Why so cooperative?" - Garami
"'Cause I would rather see the Dungeon fall than having those bastards alive! But I won't do anything myself. I'm officially retired." - Boss snake
Can Floor Bosses retire?
---
Back to the present
Do it!
After picking up the dagger that had been repelled by the Queen's defense, I gave that order to the Skeleton Raptor underground before jumping off the Queen with [Sky Jump].
A few seconds after the order was given, a large explosion was heard from under the ground. The ground gave up underneath the Queen and her spawns, kinda like a sinkhole.
The trick is simple: I had the moles dig underneath the tower to hole out the ground with just enough tunnels. When the moles thought it was unstable enough, we sent a Skeleton Frog down with one of the bombs I had stolen from the robots and had it on stand-by the whole time.
While testing out the Spectermancer class, I found out that the undeads can still receive orders even when they cannot hear me, kinda like a form for telepathy.
Therefore, the brawl from before was just a farce. I wanted to see if I could beat the Queen without wasting another bomb. I needed to get the tower away, as it would bother the next step in my anti-Queen plan.
I looked down from the mountain path and saw that all the smaller spiders had been crushed by the sinkhole, save for some lucky fellows. The Queen's still alive, as expected. But not for long! Open all Storage flood gates!
The artificial sinkhole was soon filled with tons of water that I had stored from the different water sources on this Floor.
"Uwaaa... death by drowning..." - Gust
Gust who had been on guard duty in case the other Glavras bosses came back earlier than expected. And he's not wrong. The sinkhole is completely submerged now, thanks to the moles sealing off the tunnels after leaving the undead inside.
The spider queen was covered by gallons of water, hiding its massive form. The weaker spiders floated to the top, but they had all died due to the water pressure. The artificial lake looked kinda magical with the lights emitting from the spider corpses as they disappeared.
"Then we will not be needing this anymore," said Gust while throwing...HEY!!
"Why are you throwing the poison!?" - Garami
I gave Gust a bottle of the same poison that I used on the Queen so he had the means to defend himself, but it's too much of a waste to throw it away like that!
"The bottle was starting to fall apart, so what else could I do?" - Gust
It was about to-what!? I took a look at the remaining 8 bottles that were in the Storage, and yes, the bottles' durabilities have lowered since I last time I checked them. They still got more than half their durability left, but even so, oi.
"...The poison works even on the bottles?" - Garami
"That is why the Elder made the poisons right before we left." - Gust
I thought he needed enough time so that there were no accidents.
"...'Air express' them to the T-Rex and the tortoise?" - Garami
"Do not look at me for that. If something happened to the bottles mid-flight, then I am a goner." - Gust
True that.
SYSTEM MESSAGE:
The tamed monster, Gust, has reached its maximum racial level. Evolution is now possible.
Level has increased. Reached Lv.6
You have earned 0.3 Skill Points
Due to "Champion of Alvatria", an additional 0.3 Skill Points were earned.
[Reduced Stamina Consumption] skill level has reached Lv.Max
Skill, [Minimized Stamina Consumption] has been unlocked.
You have earned 0.6 Skill Points
Due to "Champion of Alvatria", an additional 0.6 Skill Points were earned.
Title [Legion of One] has advanced to [Army of One]
Acquired skill: [Speed Increase Lv.1]
Acquired skill: [Dexterity Increase Lv.1]
Skill: [Dexterity Increase (Small) Lv.Max] has been integrated into skill: [Dexterity Increase Lv.1]
Skill: [Speed Increase (Small) Lv.Max] has been integrated into skill: [Speed Increase Lv.1]
Acquired title: [Arachnid Slayer]
Acquired skill: [Dexterity Increase (Small) Lv.1]
Skill: [Dexterity Increase (Small) Lv.1] has been integrated into skill: [Dexterity Increase Lv.3]
"...What? Oi." - Garami
I turned to look at the guilt-bird, who is sweating cold sweat like there was no tomorrow.
"...Ah! I see! The poison must have been classified as the last damage, so all the EXP went to the one who added the poison to the water!" - Gust
"Don't try to wiggle away from this. Throw up those EXPs right now. Just 4% is not enough for me!" - Garami
I grabbed the greedy bird and shake him upside down in the hope of getting him to hurl up the EXP. Since that did nothing (didn't expect that either, just wanted some stress relief), I went down to the sinkhole and stored the used water.
Let's see, [Identification]...yup. It's poisoned. Just a little bit though. Even that's enough for the last-attack thing? Or is it due to the cause of death is drowning?
"Hey, what about the Queen?" - Gust
The Queen, huh. It's resisted the poison completely by the end, so it should be fine even to eat, not that I'm all that for the idea. Guess I'll convert-
"This thing's going to be worth several Gold Sols, so please do not convert it," said Gust who had flown down.
"...Sols?" - Garami
"Sols, I tell you, Sols! I am talking about money! Do you not even know that?" - Gust
I gave him a good glare and thought about it.
True, the Glavras monsters are all unique to this Dungeon alone, and this is a Floor Boss. Just the originality could get us some cash from researchers or whatever, and even if I converted it, there wouldn't result in any "Glavras undeads" blueprints either. Selling it does sound like the better option, especially since I'm penniless. Into the Storage with you, your majesty.
"The only bad part is that Dungeon monsters do not produce magic stones." - Gust
Those stones that C-Rank monsters and above may have in their bodies? Eh, I'm not that sad over some uncertain profits-
*Rumble, rumble, RUMBLE!*
What was that?! An earthquake? In the Dungeon? Or is Sent going bananas? Anyway, this doesn't seem to be safe.
After the quake stopped popped up a System Message...no, a Quest notification?
It's a war, it's a war!
Aid the brave rebels of the Water-Knot of Glavras by defeating the Floor Bosses that have converged on Floor 7!
SYSTEM MESSAGE:
Quest Failed.
Rewards for cleared Quest Content are given.
Due to partly failing some Quest Content, the rewards from the Quest have been diminished.
Quest reward can be selected from the Quest Log.
Emergency Quest released: [Cut the Knot],
"Eh?" - Garami & Gust
No time to explain! Just get down there and stop that mad snake!!
"...EEEEHHH?!" - Garami & Gust
And as if that was not enough, we heard a roar from the south of the Floor, from where the entrance to the next floors should be. I recognize that sound!
The King Cobra.
Greydra
Kigal-Note/Monsters/Dinosaurs: Glavras Rexus
Description:
The Glavras Rexus is the tyrant of the "Water-Knot of Glavras" Dungeon. Unlike its previous evolutions, this creature is a lone wolf that does not take pleasure in the company of others. Instead, it forces its will to the Glavras Slipraus and Regaliraus by threats and shows of strengths.
Appearance:
The Glavras Rexus has the appearance of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The sole difference is that the Rexus has marine-colored scales.
Abilities:
The Glavras Rexus has incredible physical attack power. A single swipe with its tail is enough to crush bolder into dust. It may not be as fast as it was before evolution, but it can still catch up to a regular human with ease.
While not noticeable at first, the Glavras Rexus has incredible stamina and endurance, mostly due to having experienced the recoil from its massive strength.
Another surprising fact about it is that it can crush even steel with its powerful jaws. The strongest weapon of the Glavras Rexus is its fangs and jaws. It is also the most durable part of the Rexus. Even an explosion cannot hurt a Glavras Rexus' jaw.
Gust's comment: Here I thought it used some Resistance Skill to perform that explosion-breath thing, but it can do so without any assistance!?