The next floor is the 27th floor. It’s the one with the Hydra, right?” I said to Elland-san as we took the stairs down.
There was an odd look on Elland-san’s face. “Yes, however, I’ve only read about Hydras… I wonder if we can even stand our ground…”
[4] “Maa, it’s the final boss of the dungeon, after all, I totally understand your feelings,” I said.
“Worry not, elf. I have defeated several Hydras on my own. With Dora and Sui beside me, there’s no way I can lose.” [5] [6] Fer smirked and stepped forward confidently towards the stairs leading to the final floor.
“Listen well, I shall take point on this fight,” [5] said Fer. “A Hydra is like a water serpent with nine heads. We must crush all nine heads at the same time or it will regenerate itself to its previous form.” [5]
I nodded to myself, looks like the general rule for in-game Hydras seems to apply here too. Speaking of which, [4] “How did you defeat the nine heads by yourself, Fer?” [5] [4] “Muu, when I fought my first hydra, it kept regenerating. So I got angry and destroyed the creature with my most powerful Thunder Magic.” [5] [6] “I- I see…”
[4] “Fufu, there is nothing in this world that I cannot defeat on my own, but having Dora and Sui will make this easier. As for the elf…” [5] [8] Elland-san sighed, “I understand, a Hydra is beyond my level. I believe I shall refrain from fighting this time.”
“Umu, it’s better that way,” Fer said imperiously. Then, he looked over at me, “I believe it is also better for the master to observe from the side.”
[8] “Ah, yes,” no objections from me on that! [5] [8] “Very well, Dora, Sui! Listen carefully. To crush that Hydra, we must destroy all nine heads at the same time. I shall deal with the three in the centre. Dora will take care of the three on the right and Sui the ones on the left. Is that clear?”
““Woohoo! Yeah!”” [5]
““Sui will do her best~”” [5]
“Good, attack on my signal.” [5] [6] Dora-chan and Sui happily flew or bounced after Fer. Elland-san and I followed them. When we reached the stairs, we found no monster waiting for us. There was only a short passageway leading straight towards the Boss Room.
It opened into a large stone room with dull brown walls. A huge nine-headed serpent lifted its heads out of the water to glare at the door when my familiars walked in. When the heads reared back to attack, Elland-san and I ducked behind the doorway.
“Alright, now!”
Fer’s battle cry was simple and straight to the point.
Rumble… flash!!
[8] A huge bolt of lightning branched into three separate forks and slammed into three of the Hydra heads in the middle.
Rumble, rumble, roar!!!
Stab! Stab! Stab!
Icicles the size of spears pierced into three of the Hydra’s heads on one side.
[8] Blat! Blat! Blat!
Large Acid Cannons shot towards the Hydra heads on the other side and it was as though the three heads had been vaporised on contact.
Thudd. Thudd. Flop.
“Woahhh,” [2] I couldn’t help my amazement. [8] Here I thought we would have to struggle a bit against a legendary enemy but we simply overwhelmed the Hydra through brute force alone.
“They took down a Hydra in an instant…” Elland-san’s voice was a little faint.
If I was surprised, Elland-san was beyond shocked.
We stared until the body of the badly damaged Hydra disappeared, leaving an extra-large magic stone, a neatly rolled up piece of skin and a very gorgeous treasure chest.
Oh, this must be the legendary boss level treasure chest?
We also got one from Doran when we defeated the Behemoth.
When I appraised it…
Dungeon Boss Treasure Chest
[A rare treasure chest that comes from defeating a dungeon boss. No traps]
Nice! [5]
After putting the skin and magic stone away, I rubbed my hands and got ready to open the Treasure Chest.
Hehehe, I wonder what could be inside?
[6] I turned to share my excitement with Elland-san… but the Elf was not there.
“Elland-san?” I turned and saw that Elland-san was right where I had left him by the entrance to the boss room. He was still staring at the empty space where the Hydra corpse had been.
Aaah, he must still be in shock from seeing how my familiars took down that Hydra.
“Elland-san, Elland-san, Elland-san!” [5]
“Huh? Uh, yes? What is it?”
“What do you mean ‘what’? The boss monster dropped a treasure chest. If you don’t come over I’m going to open it on my own.”
“Wait!” Elland-san rushed over, “I want to have a look too!”
He paused before the chest and rubbed his chin. “So, this is the one? If I recall correctly, you also got a dungeon boss level treasure chest back at Doran’s dungeon, right?”
“Yes, there was a magic sword inside,”
“The outside was pretty impressive too, very beautiful and studded with all kinds of jewels and precious metals.”
“Hahaha…” recalling what was inside that treasure chest, I eyed this one more warily.
[4] “Well? What are you waiting for? Let’s see what’s inside.”
“Alright, I’m going to open it now,” [4] I pushed the cover opened and we both looked inside. “Oh,”
“Amazing,”
[6] Indeed.
[8] We scored a real treasure chest this time. The Hydra had dropped a treasure chest heaped with gold coins, jewels and jewellery of all kinds. There was also a cloth bag inside the chest. [2] I naturally used [Appraisal] on it and found that it was a Magic Bag (XL), with the capacity of 300 large hemp bags.
[6] Nice! [5]
“An actual Magic Bag, how useful,” commented Elland-san.
“Indeed, according to Fer, this Magic Bag has extra-large capacity too,” I said excitedly. Naturally, I’m going to give this to Fer during his hunting trips since the medium capacity Magic Bag is too small for us.
“E-extra large? My, that’s quite a Drop,” said Elland-san.
[6] “Oh?”
[4] “Indeed, a Magic Bag of such capacity hasn’t been found in dungeons for the past 20 years at least. It would fetch quite a lot of money if you sell it, Mukouda-san.”
[4] “Oh, but I kind of want it… anyway, let’s talk about it later,”
“That’s fine with me, let’s just pack everything up and get out of here,”
Once the treasure chest and its contents had been stuffed into my [Item Box] [6] I looked around the empty room one last time. [1] “I guess we’ve officially cleared Avering’s dungeon?”
“Yes, I still can’t quite believe it. To think that after retiring from active Adventuring, I finally have the opportunity to properly clear the first dungeon challenge of my life,” Elland-san sounded quite emotional.
[6] “Oh? Er, congratulations,” I was not really sure what to say.
[4] “Did you know? Even a party of S Rankers may not be able to clear an entire dungeon in one shot. This is so momentous!” [6] He suddenly grabbed me by the upper arms. “A full dungeon clearing is as rare as once every 100 years, you know?”
[6] “Ahahaha,” I can’t wait to get out of this situation. “A-anyway, since we’ve collected the treasure chest, shall we head to the surface?”
“Oh? What? Yes, alright.”
“Hold on, I’m hungry,”
““Hey! I’m hungry too!””
““Sui’s tummy is rumbling~~”” [5]
“Ah, everyone has been working hard since the 25th floor, right? It’s about time for lunch too,” [6] I looked around the empty room and picked a relatively clean looking corner away from where the Hydra had fallen. The Hydra might not respawn so soon, but I’d rather not take the chance. “Why don’t we have our lunch there?”
“Good idea,” Elland-san was already exploring the place now that we’ve decided not to leave right away, “I’m actually a little hungry myself.”
~
In short, we had lunch at the Dungeon Boss’s room.
Fer puffed out his chest and immediately declared, “I want Meat!”
[4] ““Meat!””
[4] ““Meat~~””
Ahaha, of course.
Anyway, I rifled through my [Item Box] and found that we only have Seafood Tempura and Golden Back Bull marinated in miso. [6] I looked at my four… I mean, three hungry familiars and decided that it wouldn’t take long to make some Miso Grilled beef.
Therefore, I took out my Magic Stove, some miso pickled beef and got ready to grill. [6] It was only a matter of laying out the pickled sliced meat flat on baking trays and-
“Not done yet?” [5]
“Just a little longer,” I said, not bothering to look at the hungry four.
Ignoring them with practised ease, I set the timer on the oven and got the rice and shredded cabbage ready. As soon as the oven pinged, all I had to do was arrange the sizzling hot Miso Grilled Golden Back Bull onto their bowls.
Oh, I cut up mine and Elland-san’s portion into bite-size pieces so that it’s easier for us to eat.
“Alright, here you go,”
“Umu, umu, food tastes best after a battle,”
““Nom, nom, no complaints from me!””
““Meat is yummy~””
“I must say, Mukouda-san. Everything you’ve made thus far has been outstandingly delicious,” [4] said Elland-san with a happy sigh.
“Well, can’t go wrong with Miso Grilled,” I said with a smile. The fact that we would soon be leaving this wretched dungeon made the meal all the more delicious. In fact, everyone ate more than usual, including myself and Elland-san.
Perhaps everyone was excited about leaving the dungeon too?
Anyway, once I was done clearing up after our meal, it was time to leave.
We made our way towards the magic circle that had appeared after the Hydra was defeated. Hmm, well, at least this bit was similar to Doran’s dungeons.
“Is everyone on the magic circle?” asked Elland-san.
A chorus of ‘yes’ answered him, although some only echoed in my head via telepathy.
[8] “Very well, I shall activate the circle now,” Elland-san channelled some magic power into the circle and a dazzling light nearly blinded my eyes. There was a loud rattling sound and when the light faded, we saw sunlight flooding in through a very old looking door.
Finally, our party returned to the surface after a whole week of underground adventure.
Eguchi Ren: As promised, the party are out of the dungeon.
[Gumihou: Whew! That’s kind of exciting yet tiring, lol.]
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[8] Creative Licence Taken