The duo approached the Shadow Crawler that was on the verge of death as Sol pondered out loud, “Should I heal it?”
How was the boss going to honor its side of the deal if it died?
Amber shrugged as she didn’t care. What mattered to her was that she won the battle, leaving it a problem for Sol to figure out.
“Hmm… [Life Drop].”
A drop of water penetrated the creature’s body, renewing it with life as its wounds began to close at a moderate speed. Even though he had used the magic on others before and seen faster results, the boss’s much higher vitality made the healing magic less effective.
Seeing this, Sol could only think to himself, ‘I really need to get my hands on advanced magic.’
His magic had been falling behind even though it had reached the advanced stage. Unlike martial arts, which were ingrained in his body, magic required learning the spells on top of mastering mana control. Everyone he had siphoned magic skills from knew at most intermediate level spells. The only advanced magic he knew were the three dark spells he had obtained from the Laughing Skulls.
It took a while, but soon the boss woke up from its coma, shooting upright.
“Oh shit! Oh… I’m still alive?” At first, the Shadow Crawler felt a rush of adrenaline from the residual energy of the water spell, but after realizing it was alive, its reaction was rather lukewarm.
Sol rolled his eyes. “Of course you're still alive. How else would you fulfill your side of the bet?”
“Hmm? That's not an issue. Oh, I see.” Its eyes slightly curved as it caught onto their perspective and added, “I thought you already knew this, but killing me won’t actually end my life. This isn’t my real body, after all.”
“Not your real body? Then where is it?”
The boss scoffed, finding the question hilarious. “Hah! As if I would tell you. Regardless, my memories and abilities are split throughout all my clones into what you see before you. Killing me only sends my memories back to my main body, which is then shared with all the other clones.”
“So if we kill you, all the other clones will know what happened to you and our bet?”
“Yup,” the Shadow Crawler said nonchalantly as it stretched its still sore arms.
‘This doesn’t just extend to the bet,’ Sol thought to himself. ‘It could be very dangerous if someone fights a boss like him without knowing this.’
Unlike typical bosses that operated purely on instincts or with very low level sentience, a boss like the Shadow Crawler could lose to a party, and that fight would be shared with all its other clones in boss rooms. If the party chose to fight again, which most likely they would to level up before diving into the next set of floors, the boss could turn the knowledge it gained from its clone against them. It could bait the party into repeating the same attack, only to lay a trap. If done well, it could lead to their demise.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Why are you telling us this?” Sol asked. He felt that this information alone was valuable.
The boss shrugged in response. “She won the bet, and the way bosses are set up is part of the rules, so you would’ve known in time. Speaking of which, are you ready to hear them all?”
He tilted his head. “Hear them? Don’t you have a scroll or a book with them already written down?”
It shook its head. “Nope, it’s ingrained in our minds. Even so, it took me a few years to comprehend them all. I’ll just say them, so you better take out a pen and paper. We’ve got 143 rules to go through. Also, I’m not pausing to explain; just wait till the end if you have any questions.”
“Fine, let me at least make it comfortable…”
Sol made three chairs out of stone, which he and Amber sat on, while the boss didn’t sit on its chair but instead used its tail to coil into a seat, supporting its entire weight.
The Shadow Crawler didn’t see either of the duo taking out anything to write with, nor making the motion to do so, and shrugged, not caring if they forgot all the rules by the end.
“Let’s start with the first rule, which is to let the races of the world use dungeons as places to train and improve…”
...
“Rule 143, Monster amendment. Monsters are also allowed to enter dungeons to train with the same privileges as the races of the world. The only beings exempt from this rule are harbingers. So, did you get all that?”
Sol nodded as he heard the final rule. After taking a moment to properly memorize it with his pseudo psychic skill, he said, “I can see why you were so confident that the kingdom was unaware of these rules. There’s a lot they haven’t been taking advantage of. But why is rule 36 a thing? Wouldn’t rules 25, 26, 54, and many others be more beneficial for the dungeon if that one rule wasn’t in place?”
Rule 36 was one that stood out to Sol as it prevented dungeons from actively seeking out and communicating with other beings. With it in place, only people could request to speak with the dungeon, and even then there were specific requirements for the dungeon to be able to accept.
The boss raised an eyebrow. ‘He remembered the exact rule numbers just from hearing them once?’ Impressed by Sol’s astounding memory, it nodded in agreement.
“You're not wrong. As for why, I don’t really know. I’m not the one who wrote them. I assume it’s because too many would bother the dungeons all over the world with requests or find loopholes that would end up ruining the purpose of dungeons.”
Sol nodded and added, “Similar to how the dungeon used the loophole of moving undead through the floor to attack us, people would try to find loopholes as well.”
The Shadow Crawler chuckled at the comparison. “Haha, right… By the way, I know I lost, but is there truly no way to convince you to return the void root? Mother needs it.”
He sighed at the question and shook his head. “No, at least not for the near future. Currently, I have someone after my life, and I need this as a precaution. Maybe when I become a true A-Ranker, but the way my law technique is developing, it's not an offensive type, so I might still need it then. I’m sorry, but maybe one day.”
He felt bad for the pitiful boss that did its best to convince him and even suggested a bet it knew well beforehand it didn’t have that good of a shot at winning.
Hearing his answer, the boss could only accept it. “Then I hope that day comes soon. You’re more than welcome to come slay me again if you need any experience.”
Sol chuckled at the oddly grim sentence that only a dungeon boss could say.
“Sure, I’ll see you soon.”
The boss didn’t resist or move away as Amber wielded her dagger and swung once, separating its head from its body.
[You have slain a Lv 130 Shadow Crawler! Gained 261,979,625 Exp (460%)]
With the boss slain, the door to the next floor unlocked, allowing the two to leave. But before leaving, Sol silently siphoned the skills off its corpse.
‘Don’t mind if I do.’
[Learned [Shadow Manipulation] Lv 7!]
[Learned [Shadow Elementalization] Lv 6!]
[Learned [Shadow Caller] Lv 4!]