“By the way, what was that about slapping flies?” Evelyn asked curiously as she angled her spear in order to leverage a strike that sent a spherical rock monster into the air. These were the foes of the sixth floor, called Rockers. They were round boulders with mouths that would roll around to hit people.
“Ah, that. It’s related to something that happened in our first year of high school,” Allan replied as he punched a hole through one of the rockers. “Basically, when Rakna and I transferred there, we offended some dudes because Rak broke the arms of a guy who was bullying a classmate.”
Nyx who was near Rakna as he kicked a rocker into the wall, sent him a ‘really?’ look. He candidly countered with a blank ‘what?’ as if he couldn’t see anything wrong with it.
“Anyhow, long story short, we got into a scuffle with a bunch of brats because of that and when they started spouting metaphors about swatting flies, Rak grabbed a rock and threw it at them. It happened exactly like earlier; it slapped them in the face, bounced, and knocked the three of them at once.”
Evelyn blinked. “Well, that’s… something. Still, considering he went as far as breaking someone’s arms, I kind of expected Rakna to do something much worse to them.”
Allan snickered. “The four of them were sent to the hospital with concussions and blood flowing down their forehead.”
“…”
“It was a big rock,” the blond added with a shrug.
Flavia chuckled wryly as she listened from the side and she was the one who killed the last rocker with a simple telekinesis-powered swing of her greatsword.
❮ ◈ ❯
You have completed the Dungeon’s Sixth Floor! Boss Floor opened.
Do you wish to leave?
Yes/No
❮ ◈ ❯
“So, next is the boss, huh?” Allan commented as they all gathered around the floor’s exit.
“Looks like it,” Rakna uttered. “It shouldn’t be much of a challenge with all of us here. We’ll have to see on other difficulties.”
“Ah… now that I think about it, we’ll have to fight the angels again if we retry, right?”
“Well, that would be obvious.”
“Will you use Ganymede again for them?” Nyx asked.
“Probably not. It would take too much mana. Even if I used hearts; I don’t have an endless supply right now and the more I eat them, the more satiated I feel. I never went that far, but it’s obvious that I might get something akin to an indigestion if I abused it. Already, my skill has been limited temporarily because I ate the heart of a monster way more powerful than me.”
“Then, what’s the plan?” Allan replied.
“We’ll see later,” Rakna ultimately said and jumped down; quickly followed by everyone.
When they landed on the seventh floor, they rapidly noticed the one thing that differed from the previous ones. Instead of the absolute emptiness, this time, there was a grandiose throne within the castle and a figure sat on top of it.
It was a creature with the top half of a woman and the bottom part of a snake. Her eyes were akin to stone and her hair seemed to glow silver in contrast with its actual color; an emerald green. Her skin was fair and her beauty couldn’t possibly be ignored. One thing to note was that she also wore no clothes and her human parts were bare.
Allan cleared his throat loudly when he saw that and looked away as he tried to keep his roaming eyes in check. Apart from him, the girls were either indifferent or miffed. Then, there was the de facto leader of their party, who was gazing at the woman with an indifferent look.
Although Rakna was indeed scrutinizing the lamia-like creature, he was in fact more interested in how Ganymede nearly had the same reaction as Allan.
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“I can taste it… you’re all quite powerful,” a sultry voice coming from the snake woman jolted him out of his thoughts and surprised the entire group as well.
“Another one…” The therian mumbled. “You’re the second ‘monster’ I hear speak. Third, if I count the horny cat as well,” he uttered.
“{Oi,}” Higure deadpanned in his mind.
“Is that so?” The woman said as her snake tail waved around. She leaned her head on her fist and regarded him. “Does it bother you, wolfwalker? Are you perhaps a coward who doesn’t dare to kill something that can hold a conversation?”
Rakna snorted and his group looked at him. “Rather… those who can talk, I kill better.”
“Oh?” The lamia smirked. “I like you already.”
“So… this, um, person, is the Dungeon’s boss?” Allan voiced, still a bit too uncomfortable to look directly at the woman’s nude figure.
“Is something wrong with that, cutie?” She retorted with a mirthful grin.
Allan coughed several times and sent a pleading look to his childhood friend. He didn’t possess the necessary bravado for this. He usually was not shy with girls but this was the type he couldn’t deal with on his own.
Rakna glanced at him in amusement and turned back toward the boss of this floor. “You, there is something I want to ask you.”
The lamia raised an eyebrow. It was a first for her. Most ‘visitors’ would have attacked her on the spot, or perhaps tried to flirt with her in the most annoying cases she had experienced. But this group seemed quite intriguing. “What is it, wolfwalker?” She expressed her curiosity.
“What are you?”
The woman blinked at the question. “Excuse me?”
“I asked, what are you?” Rakna reiterated with the same expression.
“Isn’t that obvious? I thought you looked smarter than this,” she snorted. “I’m a Green Lamia. Sort of a descendant to the Gorgon. I’m the Boss of this Dungeon. Haven’t you already used an analysis on me? There is no way you are not strong enough to see everything about me with how easily you went through the floors.”
‘So, bosses are capable of cognizance within their Dungeon’s floors,’ Rakna silently noted.
He had indeed cast Appraisal on her already. Her name was apparently Mae Maria Gorgona. She had decent stats, powerful magic, and a petrifying eye power, but her overall fighting prowess was lower than each of them.
“That is not what I’m asking,” he eventually replied and his friends were becoming a bit confused.
They noticed that he seemed to be considering something very seriously. If it wasn’t Rakna, maybe they would have thought he had been charmed by her, but it was obviously the wrong assumption in his case.
“Then, what is it?” The lamia seemed to become a bit impatient.
“What would happen if I killed you right now?” Unexpectedly, Rakna answered with this question and she froze for a second. Before she could say anything, he followed up with another one, “And if I returned to this floor again, what would happen?”
The most insightful members of Rakna’s group, namely Flavia and Nyx, visibly realized something from his words. They gazed at the lamia with a thoughtful stare.
“{How interesting…}” Fray passively commented from inside the soul realm.
“I see,” Mae whispered with squinted eyes. “You are the first to ask something like this… Should I feel grateful for your care? Or appalled of your emotionless practicality that holds no regard to me and simply demands information?”
At this point, Allan and Evelyn were quite lost. Tyran seemed to be looking at everyone with a look that said ‘we fight? we don’t fight?’ and Pronos was yawning.
“I don’t care,” Rakna retorted coldly and the lamia laughed.
“Of course…” She uttered with a crooked smile. “To answer your question… I’m nothing,” she said with an expressionless face. “At best, I’m just a toy. Eva’s toy. If I’m killed here, I’ll revive later on because the System cannot wipe out the memories of high-ego beings like me. Other than us, most monsters are brainwashed for convenience. It’s not a hard thing to do since the System created us in the first place. As such… we… I am a recyclable toy.”
Everyone suddenly started looking at her with a completely different perspective. What she had implied was that she and other ‘monsters’ were essentially just tools for Hosts to get stronger.
On the other hand, Rakna was still unmoved. “For how long?” He vaguely asked.
Mae sneered. “Twenty years, give or take. That’s how long this Dungeon has been around but there is always the chance that in the next Reset, the System deems it to be useless and erases it along with me. In fact, this Dungeon’s first floor is way too hard. The Skulking Angels killed a lot of Hosts in the past, it wouldn’t be surprising if Eva concluded that my castle is an inefficient Dungeon for the Hosts’ growth.”
They were all silent for a moment before Allan broke the stillness with a groan. “Jeez, you guys aren’t making this any easier right now. How are we even supposed to fight after this?”
Mae laughed good-naturedly. She got down from her seat and as she slithered down the throne, her body shone for a moment before her snake physiology began to morph. It quickly turned into human legs. Allan groaned again while looking away. It was even worse now.
On the other hand, Rakna was not surprised since he had seen it in her status. The girls were not too bothered but they would be lying if they said they weren’t flustered by her brazen attitude. As for Tyran and Pronos, it was a no-brainer that they didn’t care. For them, a naked human was the same as a clothed one.
“I know each of you could defeat me alone. Especially since my power is regulated and limited by which difficulty you selected,” Mae said. “Even my little distant kin over there could do it,” she said and as she pointed at Pronos. “Which is why I propose a one-on-one fight. Can you grant me this one favor?”
Rakna squinted at her and finally nodded. No one could tell what he was thinking. He then stepped back and waved at the girls to do the same. “Allan will fight you,” he announced.
“Sur- wait, what?” The blond did a double-take. “Why me?! I can’t fight against…” he struggled and just waved his arm toward the lamia’s body without looking. “That!”
Mae looked at him before grinning. “I very much agree with that choice.”
“Wha-!”
“I also agree,” Flavia added with an amused smile.
“Me too, me too,” Evelyn cheerily said.
“Same,” Nyx concluded.
Allan gaped at them then turned back to Rakna who raised an eyebrow at him. “Don’t look at me like that. Don’t think I will do it myself. I could defeat her in under half a minute at my best. How would that be fair for her?”
“How confident,” the lamia snorted but she knew he wasn’t bluffing. Her privileges had allowed her to see him transform into a werewolf earlier. There was no way she would willingly fight him as she was barely anything more than a bone to munch with his strength.
“Fucking hell…” Allan cursed and tried to look at her. “Could you at least put something on? The only unfairness here is directed at me.”
Mae shrugged. “I don’t have anything to wear. It’s not like there’s a clothesline down here.”
“Here, I can give you this,” Flavia joined in and pulled out a green one-piece dress from the spatial ring she had bought and handed it to the lamia with telekinesis. The latter looked at the dress in her hands with a stupefied expression before smiling as she put it on.
“Thank you,” she said gratefully and Allan sighed in relief.
The others backed away to a corner and he took on a serious expression. He tightened his gloves and extended his left palm forward while his right hand clenched to a fist near his waist. “Whenever you’re ready,” he stated with a calm and aloof tone befitting of a martial artist.
The lamia smiled and her eyes glowed. “That’s more like it,” she said and prepared herself for the fight as her hair started levitating because of her aura.