“…!”
The sudden blast of light forced to squeeze my eyes shut.
Grwooooo…
When I opened them a mont later, the Undead around were thrashing and lting away.
At the sa ti, my Concealnt wore off.
A few of them, finally able to perceive , lunged in my direction.
But they were already half-dead, so they weren’t much of a threat. I caved their heads in with my mace.
“Haa.”
Before long, every last Undead that had surrounded dissolved into nothing.
The intense light pouring from the Sun Emblem soon faded as well.
…Is that it?
But no clear ssage appeared.
Yeah, figured as much.
Both the first and second floors had ended with a boss monster showing up.
The odds were high that the third floor wouldn’t be any different.
I stood still and thought.
“Do I need to go back up?”
There was nothing left underground beyond the central cavern and the three branching paths.
Going back to the surface was the only option, wasn’t it?
But what if the Undead up there were still intact…
With no other path available, I walked toward the passage leading to the surface.
The entrance pit I’d first co through.
“Huh?”
When I arrived, bright sunlight was streaming down from above.
Wait, did the sun actually rise?
It seed like activating the emblem made the sun co up on the surface too.
I clamped the mace between my teeth and scaled the wall.
Then I poked my head cautiously out of the pit.
Beneath a sky where a brilliant sun hung high, a spectacular scene unfolded: countless Undead across the surface were thrashing and lting away.
“Wow…”
I sat there watching for a mont before snapping back to my senses.
It felt like everything was over, yet the floor still hadn’t been cleared… so what was left?
It had to be a boss.
I climbed the rest of the way out and scanned my surroundings like a erkat.
Nothing stood out in particular, but then…
Grwooooo…
The Undead that had been lting under the sun suddenly began stampeding in one direction.
Plenty of them were already dead, but there had been an absurd number to begin with, so the ones still remaining were a staggering mass.
“Ugh…!”
I dove back into the pit to avoid getting swept up.
The ground shook. A few of them tumbled into the pit, so I smashed their heads in.
After a while, the trembling subsided.
I climbed back up and surveyed the outside.
And…
“…Huh.”
The sight before left speechless.
The countless Undead that had gathered to one side.
They were squirming and compressing, rging together into the shape of an enormous sphere.
In other words, a massive lump of flesh.
Hands jutting out from every angle twitched and writhed like antennae.
Its sheer, stupid size overwheld more than any feeling of grotesqueness could.
Aaaaaa…
A low sound, like infrasound, leaked from the thing.
An eerie vibration that rattled my eardrums in all the wrong ways.
I grimaced and reflexively clapped my hands over my ears.
That thing… is the boss? That?
Fuck, it looks way too strong.
“…!”
The mass shuddered.
I barely had ti to think it looked like an engine revving up.
Then it accelerated at a terrifying speed and rolled straight toward .
It was insanely fast. Fast enough to send a chill down my spine.
I used Leap and hurled myself sideways.
KRAKOOOOM!
“Guh…!”
The shockwave that followed knocked off balance.
I tumbled across the ground, landed, and stopped ti to begin ntal Concentration.
Fla Strike. Fairy Light Bullet.
I cast the spells back to back and launched them.
Three balls of fla and five Light Bullets streaked toward the mass.
KABOOOOM!
Direct hits, all of them.
But against sothing that size, even Fla Strike’s explosion looked small, and the Light Bullets were little more than pellets.
Graaaah!
Still, it seed to do so damage; the thing shrieked as if in pain.
‘Did it swallow a goddamn locomotive or sothing…!’
Another wave of that sickening infrasound.
I was still scowling when I looked at the mass and my eyes went wide.
The craters my spells had carved were already squirming shut, filling in and smoothing over. It regenerated in an instant.
Oh, co on… that’s cheating.
Before I even had ti to feel cheated, another change was already happening.
This ti, holes opened up all across its body and it sprayed sothing in every direction at once.
FWSHHHHH!
A torrent of purple liquid rained down from above.
I scrambled out of the way.
The ground where the acid landed hissed and dissolved.
“Sh…”
What the hell is this now…!
I barely escaped the biochemical bombardnt and whipped around to look at the mass.
It was already rolling toward again, not giving a second to breathe.
I burned another Leap to throw myself clear!
KRAKOOOOM!
Everything in its path was obliterated.
I was scrambling to my feet after rolling across the ground when,
It was gone? Where?
‘Where’d it go?’
A shadow fell over the ground. I looked up.
The thing was plumting from the sky like a teor, directly onto my head.
“…!”
Son of a…
I was too late to dodge. I stopped ti.
THUUUUD!
I Teleported to maximum range and rolled away desperately.
“Haa, haa…”
Despite its massive size, the thing bounced like a basketball and launched itself skyward again. Falling toward once more.
The instant Leap ca off cooldown, I used it and threw myself aside.
Fla Strike’s cooldown happened to be up too, so I fired another one at the mass.
KABOOOOM!
But just like before, the mass only scread a little and regenerated in no ti.
Wait a second…
Sothing was wrong here.
Because this thing was clearly not an enemy I could take down.
The sunlight didn’t even seem to faze it, and just surviving wasn’t going to cut it either…
“Ha.”
Here it cos again, already rolling.
I dodged with Leap.
The pit.
I need to get back into the pit.
Crushed by the overwhelming gap in power, I lost all will to fight and just tried to run.
But there was no opening for even that.
The mass rolled past, then slamd on the brakes, pulled a sharp turn, and ca rolling right back, like so kind of circus trick.
Fuck.
With both Leap and Teleportation on cooldown, I had to dodge with my bare body.
But the thing was so massive that without Leap, I couldn’t fully clear its path.
WHAM!
For a split second, I saw death.
I’d only been grazed by the edge of it, yet my body was launched like I’d been hit by a hundred-ton truck.
I flew through the air, slamd into the ground.
I tumbled for what felt like forever before crashing into a boulder and finally stopping.
“Hrrgh…”
Through the unbelievable agony, I looked down at myself.
My right arm was twisted at a wrong angle, and my right ribs had caved inward.
The pain was so bad I stopped ti.
The dizzying agony vanished as if washed away.
‘…I’m fucked.’
That was the first thought that ca to mind.
Why did a monster this absurdly powerful show up as the boss?
And now I thought I understood.
That mass was born from all the remaining Undead on the field rging together.
In other words, there should never have been that many Undead on the field in the first place.
When I’d dug in and held out until full nightfall, that insane swarm had co pouring out.
That was where it had already gone wrong.
Before the Undead could pile up on the surface like that, I should have gone underground early and activated the Sun Emblem.
Then far fewer Undead would have rged, and whatever boss ford would have been sothing manageable. Not this monstrosity.
It was absurd.
How was anyone supposed to find the underground passage and head down there imdiately with zero information?
But then again, this insane difficulty had never once failed to demand exactly that kind of unreasonable play.
I’d gotten the very first step wrong.
That was the sole reason I was in this situation now.
‘Is this the end?’
The mont I released ti, the mass would co rolling again.
In this condition, I couldn’t dodge.
Teleportation was still on cooldown, and even if I dodged one more ti, it wouldn’t matter.
…I was as good as dead already.
Facing my second death after the one underground, I felt calr than before.
But was there really no way to survive? Was this truly it?
‘There isn’t.’
Attacks don’t work. Can’t dodge. What am I supposed to do?
…Ah.
There was one thing left.
[Item: Plligas’s Blood Necklace]
A necklace infused with the blood of Plligas, a predator of the demon realm. Defeat the summoned Plligas to form a Master-Servant Contract. The necklace is destroyed upon failure. (Level 50 recomnded)
A necklace that summoned a Familiar.
But using it was basically suicide.
I hadn’t tad it yet, so this thing wasn’t on my side.
Whatever. I was about to die anyway.
This was no ti to weigh the pros and cons.
I steeled myself and released ti.
“…Gkh!”
The staggering pain crashed over my entire body again.
Blood surged up my throat and burst from my mouth.
It hurt… it hurt so much it was almost pitiful.
Why was I here, broken like this?
[Use ‘Item: Plligas’s Blood Necklace’?]
A ssage floated before my eyes.
Fuck it. Co out.
I played my last gamble.
Hissssss.
Dark crimson smoke rose from the necklace around my neck.
It coalesced right in front of and began taking shape.
A massive four-legged beast.
Blazing red energy rippled around its black body, and the bristling fur that jutted from it looked like blades.
“Diul… ah…”
Before it had fully materialized, I called out desperately for Diul.
Diul let out sothing like a sigh and squeezed out the little strength it had left to cast Concealnt on .
KAOOOOO!
A roar that threatened to burst my eardrums. My whole body tingled.
Fully materialized, Plligas looked around, searching for whoever had summoned it.
But I was already concealed.
Luckily, the trick seed to work; even with right in front of it, the creature couldn’t find .
KRRRUMBLE…
That was when the mass ca rolling this way.
Plligas turned toward it and let out another roar.
The mont Plligas kicked off the ground, a shockwave erupted.
It shot forward like a cannonball at a terrifying speed, vaulted over the mass just before impact, and tore off a massive chunk in its jaws.
The mass scread and wobbled past , rolling off course.
“…!”
Plligas charged at the mass again without a mont’s pause.
I used Teleportation to put as much distance as I could between myself and the two monsters.
‘It actually worked…’
This was exactly the scenario I’d been banking on.
Getting the two of them to fight each other seed to have worked.
The battle between Plligas and the mass was a kaiju war in every sense.
Plligas was enormous in its own right, but only about a third the size of the mass.
Yet it clung to the mass without giving it room to roll, tearing into it like a rabid animal, like a tiger hunting an elephant.
With a recomnded level of 50 and above, Plligas was every bit as powerful as advertised.
WOOOOO!
The mass, bitten and torn and howling in agony, spewed acid again.
Drenched in the stuff, Plligas’s body began to dissolve and it staggered.
The mass seized the mont and tried to roll with Plligas still latched on.
Plligas was crushed against the ground several tis before it finally tore free.
GRAAAAH!
Even so, Plligas’s ferocity hadn’t dimd.
It charged in and tore at the mass, got thrown off, charged in and tore again, got thrown off again. That cycle repeated several tis.
The two monsters fought on and on until, at last, the battle seed to reach its conclusion.
Both the mass and Plligas were in ruins, but it was Plligas that ran out of strength first.
I watched as the staggering Plligas scattered like dust.
[Kill Contribution insufficient. The Master-Servant Contract is voided.]
A ssage appeared before my eyes.
Voided… so if I didn’t take it down myself, this is what happened?
But it didn’t seem to count as a failure either, since the necklace wasn’t destroyed.
None of that mattered right now, though.
WOOOOO…!
The mass looked like a half-eaten apple, chewed down to a sorry state.
Deep inside its exposed innards, at the very center, there was a section where the Undead were packed especially tight, like a wick.
It looked like the thing’s core. At least, that’s what it looked like to .
The mass began squirming from the inside, trying to regenerate again.
“GRAAAAAAGH…!”
I scread and forced my trembling body upright.
This was the last chance. The only chance.
After fully recovering my Willpower, I launched Fla Strike and Light Bullets all at once, aid straight at the mass’s core.
KABOOOOM!
My upper body was completely fucked, but my legs still worked.
I broke into a run toward the mass.
Every movent was so excruciating I felt like I could collapse at any second.
But stopping ant death, so I clung to consciousness by a thread.
The flas cleared, and I could see the core, still wailing, with roughly half of it blown away, but it still held its shape.
This was it. The final blow.
I activated Leap and launched myself at the mass, then Teleported inside its body.
With the mangled core right in front of , I unleashed Blade Storm.
KRAKOOOM!
The core was shredded to pieces.
Chunks of dead flesh rained down around , and my body plumted along with them.
[Successfully cleared Nightmare difficulty, Floor 3.]
[Absorbing the Power of the Floor.]
[Level has increased.]
[Level has increased.]
[Level has increased.]
.
.
.
As the ssages scrolled before my eyes one after another, I smiled and closed my eyes.
That was rough. Really, truly rough.
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