As the door closed, I looked around the boss room. It was a big circular room that looked like an ancient ruin built into a cave. There were broken stone pillars around an engraving of a large spider at the center of the room.
I was on guard when the engraving started glowing and black ash appeared out of thin air to form into a black, shapeless mass. This was similar to when a monster disappears after you kill it but in reverse.
It grew in size until it was the size of a wagon, and then formed into the shape of a giant spider. Then the black thing that was shaped into a spider had its black outer layer peel off to reveal the Lateradec spider.
The size of the thing reminds me of the direwolf. Compared to the direwolf, which was in the upper ranks of C-rank monsters, it should be slightly easier because it was in the middle rankings of C-rank monsters.
Fortunately, this time, I know the best ways to kill it from the book I read about this dungeon.
The most effective way to kill it is to smash its head with something, like a war hammer, to bypass its hard exoskeleton.
Since I don’t have anything to smash it with, I have to use the other way. There are gaps in its exoskeleton that you can cut through with a sword, and the gap between the abdomen and sternum is a weak spot it has.
The only tricky part is figuring out how to get on top of it.
Once the Latrodec spider finished spawning, it screeched to announce the start of the fight.
Immediately, I threw three spikes at its big red eyes. All of them hit, and I rushed it as it was reeling in pain.
I chop off its left front leg while dodging a swipe of its right front leg. Then I moved back, steering clear of its mouth as it went in for a bite.
Unknowingly, my grin when I entered the boss room grew into a mad smile because this boss monster was an actual threat compared to the small fries on the upper floors.
Going back in, it tried to use its other legs to skewer me, but I dodged all of them till it went in for another bite.
Just before it could do so, I pulled out my shortsword and shoved it up its mouth to let it bite it instead of me.
It looked more than ticked off, if not going berserk, swinging down its legs to skewer me even more furiously than before.
I just take one or two steps to dodge, like in a dance, and cut off another of its legs.
Dodging the legs coming down on me, my mind became so focused that I didn’t realize I was giggling. This was much more fun of a game than with the toads on the 8th floor. After all, one wrong move would definitely kill me.
Seeing that I kept dodging its attacks, the Latrodec spider was smart enough to know that it wasn’t working, so it charged at me instead, using its giant body to do so.
I jump out of the way to get away from it charging at me, causing the Latrodec spider to headbut one of the pillars. However, it wasn’t deterred and charged at me again.
This went on a couple more times, with it kept on crashing into the stone pillars.
“He-he-he. You're a tough one.”
Laughing at the surprise challenge, it was relentless as it kept getting up and charging at me without pause, making it hard to get an attack in.
So, this is like a phase two.
If I had more people, then it would be a lot easier to deal with because there is a small window to attack the Latrodec spider when it crashes into the pillars. However, I couldn’t make it since I had to jump out of the way of its massive body each time, and by the time I tried to attack it, it had already gotten up and charged at me again.
Thinking about it made me unknowingly smile even bigger in glee.
Looking at the pillars the Latrodec spider kept crashing into, they did not budge or were even damaged, like in a video game, which gave me an idea.
I got out of the way of another charge by the Latrodec spider, but this time I ran up to one of the broken stone pillars that was short enough for me to barely climb up on.
I grabbed at the edge of the broken stone pillar just before the spider crashed into the pillar I was pulling myself up at.
It stared at me for a bit, and it did something that surprised me; it began climbing up the pillar. With how big it was and the fact that I cut off two of its legs, I didn’t expect it could climb to begin with.
Well, this is a welcome surprise. Taking out all of my spikes, I throw a volley at the Latrodec spider, aiming at its joints, hoping to make one of its legs unusable.
It does work, but it was still climbing. I jumped over to the next pillar and threw the rest of my spikes in another volley as it was getting close.
It made another of its legs unusable, causing it to fall off the pillar from not having enough legs to climb.
As it was getting up, I jumped down, rolling on the ground to absorb the fall, and then I stared at it.
The Latrodec spider tried to screech, but the shortsword I stabbed into its mouth prevented it from screeching. Then it charged at me again, but, since it has four legs now, its movements have significantly dulled.
I dodge it relatively easily and chop off the last two legs on its left side. It crashed again into a pillar, and seizing the opportunity, since it could not get up anymore, I ran up to it and jumped up on its abdomen.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
The Latrodec spider resisted by knocking me off, but it didn’t matter in the end, and I thrust my sword through the gap between the abdomen and sternum, coming out the other side, killing it.
Getting off, the body turned all black and began disappearing, and the door to the next floor opened to reveal a forest.
I picked up what had dropped from the Latrodec spider, it was a medium-sized magic shard, twice as big as the small magic shards I was collecting, and a ring with a clear gray gem.
After I picked up the magic shards, ring, and my throwing weapons, I stepped out to the 11th floor.
Calming down just a bit, I still had a grin and was still riled up from fighting the spider, but I looked around to see the first floor of the second stratum, which looked exactly like a forest.
Looking back at the 10th-floor boss room, maybe I should go fight the spider again. There aren’t any respawn timers, so I could fight it as many times as I wanted.
That sounds like a good idea. I went back and fought the boss, going in and out of the boss room again and again, having really fun doing so.
After going in an unknown amount of times and trying out different methods of killing it, my legs gave out on me just before I was about to open the door to the boss room again.
Maybe I overdid it a little. My exhaustion finally caught up to me, and I was on the ground, barely able to move.
Trying to get up, my legs were wobbly, and I fell to the ground again. As I fell, I felt my hand touch something. Picking it up, I saw that it was a pendent of some kind, an expensive one at that, and I felt like I saw it from somewhere.
Looking at it closer, it had no gems on it, but it did have a crest.
I recognized the crest to be from an Earl household, with the quality of the workmanship being better than a baron’s but not as good as a marquess's or higher.
However, I can’t recall the name of it since there are over 50 Earl families in this kingdom; it’s kind of hard to remember them all.
I’m guessing that this pendant belongs to one of the girls who ran out of the boss room. Thinking about it now, from how they were dressed and their equipment, the signs were obvious that they were nobles, since I doubt any low-ranking adventurer would have such expensive equipment as they do.
I should take this and give it back because I doubt other people would want to return it.
After resting on the stairs for a bit, I make my way back up to the entrance.
I asked one of the guards what time it was, and he said it was about 5 in the morning, which surprised me.
I really stay down there for that long?
Before I go back to the inn, I think this is a good opportunity to go to the adventurer guild to complete my quest and sell what I have gathered because there won’t be too many people this early in the morning. Plus, I think it would make a ruckus if people found out I took down a boss monster by myself.
At the adventurer guild, it was empty except for the guild workers readying for the day. Iris was also there, so I went to her.
Surprised to see me, she replied after I said hello.
“Well, you’re here really early.”
“Ya, I was dungeon diving yesterday and lost track of time.”
I pull out my pouch, filled with shards and bypass rings, and show it to her.
As expected, she was really shocked by what I took out of my pouch, like when I showed the white-horned rabbits I killed when I first met Emma.
“Wait, these are 10th-floor bypass rings!”
She looks down at the bypass ring, then up to me, and asks.
“Did you really kill the 10th-floor boss, not just once but a total of ten?”
“Yep”
After a moment or two for her to calm down, she asked why I decided to fight the 10-floor boss multiple times.
“It was fun fighting it.”
I gave her a response with my usual expressionless face, to which she gave a wry smile.
As we were talking, a tall, handsome young black-haired guy walked up to Iris behind the counter while sipping some coffee from his mug to check up on her after noticing she was all flustered talking to me.
“Is everything oka…”
The guy looks at my haul and almost spits out the coffee he was drinking seeing it.
Good thing I came here early in the morning because he looked just as surprised as Iris and said.
“What the… Did you get all of that yourself?”
“Yes, and who are you?”
“Skif”
Skif then turned to Iris and asked who I was.
“He’s Nyx”
“Ah, I see. This is the person you told me about.”
I was a bit surprised that Iris told him about me. I asked Iris who he was.
“He is the guild master.”
I looked at him, a bit shocked inside by how young he looked, and he said.
“Yes, I am the guild master, but I only got this job a couple of months ago.”
A couple of months ago?
“If you're the new guild master, what happened to the previous one?”
“Retired”
He took a long, deep, tired sigh, so I asked if he was okay.
“Who knew being the guild master would be so much more work?”
He began sulking and said.
“Better go back to work.”
Seeing him walk away, Emma wants to know what I want to sell.
“10 small magic shards for my quest, all of the medium magic shards, and nine of the ten rings; I’m keeping one.”
After doing some calculations, she told me the total amount I would be receiving.
“Okay, the total is 11 silver and 3 bronze. Is there anything else I could help you with?”
Oh right, I almost forgot the pendent.
“Ya, I almost forgot about it.”
I pulled out the pendant from one of my pockets and showed her it.
“When I was at the door to the boss room, a party made up of all girls ran out of the boss room. I think they are also nobles because the crest on the pendent is a Count’s.”
Iris gave me a questioning look when I mentioned the crest; did I just accidentally reveal myself to her?
"Wait, how do you know it’s a count’s crest?”
“Let's just say I know some random things, but anyway, could you give this back to them?”
I’m not giving it back to them in person because they are of the nobility and I’m a runaway, so I would rather not risk it.
“Not a problem; I’ll give it back if I see them."
“Okay thanks”
I gave the pendant to Iris to give back and went back to my inn. I was dead tired from dungeon diving. It was close to 7 a.m. now, and the city was beginning to wake up. Shops are starting to set up for the day, and people are commuting to work.
On the way, I saw Ned’s party, who looked to be on edge. They saw me and ran toward me.
“What happened to you?”
Ned spoke first, then Mark.
“You look like a mess.”
Do I? I guess he’s right; I practically stayed inside the dungeon for an entire day.
“Sorry for making you worry again.”
They all sighed in relief that I was safe, with Ned saying.
“This won’t be the last time this is going to happen, is it?”
“Probably”
“Go back to the inn and rest; you look exhausted.”
I did just that and went straight to bed.