‘The Corrupted Ice Temple.’
A rift accessible through Ice Rock on the seventh floor. This rift has a rather unique gimmick, even in [Dungeon and Stone]. Here, unusually, two guardians appear.
And……
‘If you kill one first, the other one becomes incredibly strong.’
The reason the ‘Corrupted Ice Temple’ suddenly came to my mind was very clear. Somehow, it feels like right now is exactly that case. Because we killed the Chief Researcher first, Berzak, who was an ordinary(?) soldier, ended up evolving.
‘Should we have killed Berzak first and then taken down the Chief Researcher?’
My gamer’s intuition was telling me there’s a high probability that’s the case, but I still can’t say for sure. After all, I haven’t tried it, have I? If we had killed Berzak first, maybe the Chief Researcher would have evolved instead. Just like in the ‘Corrupted Ice Temple,’ the strategy might be to choose the easier one to evolve and then do the raid like that.
Yeah, so……
‘Let’s get a grip.’
This situation wasn’t my fault. To begin with, predicting this kind of situation wasn’t prediction but rather the realm of precognition…… It wasn’t like I was taking my time, either. As soon as Berzak had fell into a state where he could no longer fight, I immediately closed the distance with all my might to finish him off. It was just bad timing.
Tadat—!
By the time I arrived at a position where my basic attack could reach him, Berzak’s body was already swelling up and mutating……
Crunch—!!!
Despite swinging my hammer in hopes that it might not be too late yet, the mutation didn’t stop. It was because my damage was lacking. Due to the fog, [Giantization] had deactivated, and [Swing] also became unusable.
But……
‘Even so, what can I do?’
I have to try. Standing still won’t accomplish anything.
Crunch! Crunch!! Crunch!!
While stubbornly continuing to hammer away, I also organized my thoughts that were tangled like a skein of thread. As it was my first try, questions were scattered everywhere.
[Grrrrrrr……!!]
The Imperial forces who had already finished mutating now looked like ‘monsters’ to anyone’s eyes. Then, what rank would they be? On the first floor, because of that fog, rank 9 goblins became rank 5. The knights are without a doubt rank 5 or higher already.
‘So, then what on earth happens to them?’
I don’t know. I have no information. Maybe rank 5 is the maximum. Or they might evolve into much stronger monsters. Well, no matter what, they won’t evolve into rank 1 monsters though. That’s not something made to be beaten.
‘Right, so far it’s okay.’
With our raid party’s specs, we can cover a reasonable amount of unfair difficulty. First, we destroy the portal where the Imperial Army’s reinforcements are coming through, then if we hold out in a defensive battle using the Magic Warship, eventually, there will be an end to it.
‘The biggest variable is this guy……’
Berzak. I wonder how this guy will evolve. Will he evolve into the form of the Floor Lord that appears on the first floor? Or just into some other type of hidden boss?
‘For now, he’s not transforming into something like an eyeball monster yet……’
Crunch—!
Hmm, thinking about it again, it might not matter much what form he evolves into. To begin with, in terms of pure combat strength, Berzak was below Riakis, the Floor Lord of the third floor. In fact, it wouldn’t be wrong to consider the main body to be the field effect—.
“[………Aah! Can you hear me!]”
Just then, a radio transmission suddenly came through. Since it became quiet after the fog spread, I thought communication had been cut off.
“[Viscount Yandel! Please respond! Viscount Yandel!]”
“[I hear you. What’s going on?]”
“[Perhaps due to the fog, the magic wavelengths became unstable for a moment, but we finished restoring it quickly!]”
Hmm, that’s not what I was asking about…… However, if I needlessly bring it up, it’ll just waste conversation turns, so I’ll skip over it.
“[What’s the current situation of the main force?]”
“[It’s not good! Because of the fog, all of the ship’s defensive functions have been significantly weakened—.]”
At that moment, the wizard who was talking with me cut off and a new person immediately interjected.
“[It’s Gwollen. The situation is critical, so let’s be brief and speak only of what is necessary.]”
“[Agreed.]”
“[What happened to entity Berzak?]”
There was no need for a lengthy answer. Things like I had almost had him, but didn’t work out. Or the fog burst out at the worst possible moment. Such talk was pointless now.
“[He is in the process of mutating. I am currently attempting to kill him before it finishes.]”
“[Is it possible?]”
This was also an easy question to answer. Because it was something I had already finished personally assessing.
“[It’s impossible.]”
“[I see.]”
Gwollen didn’t ask for a reason. He simply accepted my on-site judgment at face value and moved on to the next issue.
“[Can you keep holding him off going forward as well?]”
A question asked in order to formulate a future strategy. I didn’t foolishly let my pride get in the way here.
“[…It’s impossible alone.]”
Maybe if I were the (OLD) Shield Barbarian. But ‘Abyssal Fog’ is one of the few counters to the (NEW) Shield Barbarian. It makes sense, doesn’t it?
[Stake] is unusable. And since I can’t use [Giantization], I don’t receive the 1.5x Natural Regeneration increase effect from [Primordial Cell] either.
Well, not using [Stake] means my resistances don’t get shaved off, so I become a bit more durable…… But even this is meaningless as it’s offset by the passive [Absolute Pain].
‘Soft flesh that has lost its regenerative ability……?’
I can’t be stubborn even if I wanted to. How am I supposed to mark a raid boss in this kind of state?
‘Huu…… I didn’t expect to be countered this soon.’
It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Originally, builds with extreme concepts show insane performance in specific situations, but in the opposite case, they become powerless. However, the (NEW) Shield Barbarian was overpowered because there are hardly any situations where it’s at a disadvantage, and even searching through all of [Dungeon and Stone], there were ‘almost’ no cases where it would be countered……
“[Do you have a suitable plan for what comes next?]”
“[I’m thinking.]”
“[Then, how about retreating for now? Even if we resume the conquest later, it would be better to do so after regrouping. Perhaps this fog might also naturally dissipate over time.]”
“[I’ll head to the main force for now.]”
“[We shall have preparations ready.]”
“[Understood……]”
As soon as the decision was made, I left the mutating Berzak behind and dashed toward the main force. Although fog with 2 meters of visibility filled the battlefield, it wasn’t difficult to maintain my sense of direction thanks to the main force continuously blowing horns. The problem was……
‘Hah, I came out needlessly far……’
I had naturally become separated from the main force while exclusively marking this guy. The path back to the main force was swarming with Imperial forces who had already finished mutating.
[Grooooooh—!!!]
Imperial Army, once humans wielding swords and spears, had transformed into monsters with sharp claws and fangs. Every single one of their attacks was threatening. Well, even without receiving healing, I still had enough regeneration that wounds from stabs and cuts would heal immediately…… But if I were to suffer an injury like a severed limb, it would be impossible to regrow it with a pop like before. The sense of danger I felt was inevitably different.
[Defense successful. Wall of Aegis has absorbed all damage.]
Therefore, I desperately shielded my vital areas and forced my way through.
[Kaaaaaagh—!]
The pain grew as my wounds accumulated. It went beyond drool leaking from my mouth to the point where foam was forming, but even while doing so, I continued the radio communication. Hmm, to be precise, should I say Gwollen was giving me a one-sided briefing? The situation was rather bad.
“[In eliminating the Chief Researcher, we used up the Descent Ritual, five shots of Little Flash, and two Evil-Destroying Arrows. Originally, using up all the Evil-Destroying Arrows wasn’t in the plan, but……]”
“[He was truly a monstrous bastard. Just when we thought we almost had him, he started going berserk, and not only did he force the angel to unsummon, but he was on the verge of shattering the ship’s mana barrier, so we had no choice. It’s fortunate the second arrow finished him off… Otherwise, the losses would have been far greater.]”
Too many resources were consumed to take down the Chief Researcher. Come to think of it, it was because of such aggressive investment that the feat of killing a rank 1 monster in such a short time was possible, but……
“[You fired five shots of Little Flash too?]”
“[Actually only two shots were fired. The remaining three were used to protect the ship and maintain the mana barrier when he went berserk.]”
In other words, now only 5 shots are left. And even those have been significantly nerfed.
“[Due to the fog, mana efficiency has drastically decreased, so Little Flash won’t be able to produce the same performance as before going forward. If we put it into rough numbers… you can consider it to be at about 1/16th of its power—.]”
“[Wait, 1/16th?]”
No, why on earth is the calculation like that? The reduction in mana efficiency due to the fog is definitely fixed at 1/4th.
“[Separate from the efficiency of the magic engineering core decreasing, ‘Little Flash’ itself that processes and fires that core is also a magic formula, so that’s why.]”
Simply put, it meant that not only had the cannonball become smaller, but the cannon itself had become smaller as well, so the power had decreased multiplicatively.
“[What is 5 divided by 16?]”
“[It’s 0.31.]”
“[Wrong.]”
The answer is a shitty fucking Little Flash. Seriously, what the hell am I supposed to do with this? I was secretly relying on only this. Soon, I made the decision I had been holding off on until now.
“[We’re retreating.]”
A wise warrior must also know when to take a step back.
***
When I broke through the enemy lines and rejoined the main force, the area around the Magic Warship was pandemonium.
“Hold the line……!”
The Imperial Army was swarming in like mad. And the warriors were fiercely holding the front line, somehow managing to protect the ship.
‘In situations like this, it’s always the warriors who get ground down first.’
Fog with 2 meters of visibility. Because of that, the ranged dealers packed on the ship couldn’t properly provide support, and even if they could, it wouldn’t by much help. How strong could the ranged dealers’ basic attacks be anyway?
[Kuooooooh—!!!]
The monsterized Imperial Army had become far more threatening than before, but our firepower was actually lacking compared to before. Therefore, the entire burden of the battlefield fell heavily upon the warriors. Because the warriors’ role was crucial for the retreat.
“Just a little longer……! We just have to hold out a little longer!”
It was fortunate that there was the AoE healing provided by the Three Gods Orchestra; otherwise, there would have been a tremendous number of casualties by now.
“Behell—aaaaaaaah!!!”
To save even a few more of the beastmen warriors who were bearing the brunt of the attack alone, I quickly took position and drew aggro. But did she come looking for me after hearing my shout?
“Bjorn……!”
Even amidst this fog-covered situation, Missha found me.
“Where’s Ainar? Is she up there?”
“Probably, nyah! She seemed to be badly injured earlier though……”
“Injured?”
“Don’t worry too much, nyah! They said she definitely wouldn’t die! With how many priests we have, she’s probably fine by now, nyah!”
So Ainar got injured. That bastard Gwollen didn’t tell me that.
“So what happens now, nyah? Are we really retreating like this, nyah?”
“For now. Because there are too many disadvantages to fighting here right now.”
“Oh, I see. But how? Are we going to ride a wave out like when we came here, nyah? Then we’ll need to get on the ship first……”
Geez, I already explained all of this during the last briefing. Missha really isn’t in a position to look down on Ainar.
“Don’t worry. We just need to stick close to the ship.”
This raid was conducted with massive investments from multiple groups. Naturally, we planned for every imaginable situation from Plan A to Z. Of course there’s a retreat plan too.
“Huh? We just need to stick close to it?”
Missha’s question contained not just simple curiosity but also a feeling of anxiety, and just as I was about to obediently provide an answer to her question.
“[Everyone please stick close to the ship! If you’re far away, there’s a risk of being left behind!]”
A magically amplified voice covered the entire battlefield.
“Let’s run, Missha!”
“Ah, yes……!”
As soon as the order came down from the main force, I took Missha and dashed toward the hull.
And……
Shwaaaaaaaaaaa—!
A gigantic magic circle spread out on the ground centered around the hull, revealing its light clearly even within the fog. The retreat plan that we, who had invaded the heart of the enemy territory by riding a wave, had unanimously agreed upon.
“Ah! could it be Mass Teleportation……?”
It seemed Missha was starting to catch on, but to be precise, it’s not Mass Teleport. Since that magic has a fatal flaw.
“But with this many people, that magic won’t work, right nyah?”
That’s right. The maximum capacity for Mass Teleport is 20 people. Moreover, since the range is also small, the Magic Tower chose a magic far superior to Mass Teleport.
[Wilbeth Gwollen has cast the rank 1 spatial magic Spatial Leap.]
Warp. With absolutely no limitations on the number of people or weight. A highest-tier magic that takes everything within its range, in its entirety, to designated coordinates.
Flash—!
Soon, an intense light flashed as if embracing the entire space.