On The 10th Year, The Transferee Who Gave Up Returning Finally Becomes The Protagonist - Chapter 29

They went down the black, semi-transparent slope.

Beyond it, they could sense a powerful presence, and Euphie and Mailey pressed against each other fearfully.

Tor, who walked in the lead, raised his hand to signal for the others to stop.

“There is a boss.”

“The magic energy is thick. It must be in the far back.”

Agreed Fudo and the others of Boulder.

As the representative of Sheath Bane, Bastora asked Tor how he planned to proceed.

“Should we charge in? But that would be dangerous if there is a horde.”

“Euphie, Mailey, I want you to prepare the carbonated potions. We should be in the boss’s territory already. If there is a horde, then there may be scouts sent up the slope while you’re still preparing them.”

“Very well.”

And so they took the potions, effervescent powder, water, and gasogene from Fudo and the others. While they started to make the carbonated potions, Euphie pointed ahead.

“I have heard that monsters don’t move between dungeon floors. But do the scouts come up the slope?”

“That is just a popular belief. Because monsters are often cautious, and they are afraid of this semi-transparent slope. But there are still brave ones that cross in search of places with dense magic energy or better prey. And it’s the strongest of such monsters that becomes the boss.”

Tor was looking down the slope as he explained this.

There was no smell of any beasts. As they had not encountered any slimes or other monsters that liked to be clean, it was unlikely that they had turned into the boss.

And if this was not a monster that hunted regularly on the twelfth floor, then it was likely that it had set up traps.

“Could it be a spider?”

They thought back on the spider monster that they had seen on the eleventh floor.

“We finished making the carbonated potions. I have separated them into small bottles, so everyone can take two bottles. All of them are healing potions.”

Euphie passed them out to the members of Boulder and Sheath Bane, while Mailey gave them to Tor.

“Bosses are strong, aren’t they?”

“It depends on the type. But they are said to be slightly stronger to fight than two magitec beasts. I want you two to wait near the entrance to the thirteenth floor. You and Boulder should secure an escape route.”

The deepest part of a dungeon was a place where monsters fought each, and where the magic energy was the thickest. Many of the strongest monsters from the upper floor would come down there, and while they might try to leave after realizing that they were no match for the boss, they would then encounter other monsters that were coming down from the upper floor, and end up being attacked from both sides.

And so if they wanted to be able to focus on the boss battle, then they had to make sure that their backs were guarded.

“And what should we do?”

Asked Bastora as she put away the potions.

“If there are multiple bosses or if there are children, you will deal with them. If there is only one boss, then I should be able to handle it, so you should start controlling the magitec seal.

“Leave it to us. I haven’t used one in a long time. Fudo, lend me your magitec seal.”

After seeing that Bastora had accepted the cylinder shaped device, Tor moved on ahead and walked down the slope.

The presence was getting even stronger. However, they could not hear anything.

The thirteenth floor was a room surrounded by black walls. It was a square that was about fifty meters wide, and there were boulders on the ground that must have been from the twelfth floor. There was also what could have been the remains of past bosses, such as bones, wings and shells.

Tor looked up at the ceiling.

Five pairs of red eyes looked down at him.

All five pairs of eyes belonged to a single face. The moment that he realized it belonged to a black spider that was the same color as the ceiling, the floor moved.

“…So it’s a trap.”

All at once, the webs that had been covering the entire floor were pulled up towards the ceiling. It was like a fisherman pulling up a net.

Tor threw his battle rings to the side, sliding through nearby webs.

Once the spider realized that he had escaped the trap, it was quick to move.

It threw the torn web over Tor’s head, blocking his movement as it moved to his blindspot.

Tor was able to leap to the side and dodge the web, and while keeping the spider’s movement in his vision, he slashed the top part of the monster’s shell with his chakrams.

The spider then abandoned trying to pull the web back. It had been pulling the web, which was attached to a shell, in hopes that it would slam into Tor’s back, but Tor had seen through this plan.

And so the spider spun some new webs, and began to throw them.

There must be other traps still here, Tor thought as he read the trajectory of the webs with precision and dodged them.

“This will be difficult…”

The spider was moving around the ceiling. As it was throwing its webs, it understood that Tor had ranged attacks, and that it was safest if it stayed on the ceiling.

Furthermore, he could see numerous webs on the ceiling that sparkled as they reflected the light. And so if he lept in order to get close to it, he would end up getting caught in the webs.

It didn’t help that the spider was also very fast.

Tor roughly plunged his hand into his pouch and took out some iron caltraps.

At the same time, he threw his chakram in order to drive back the webs.

Red thunder flashed, and the webs were burned.

As if in surprise, the spider let go of the webs.

After cutting through the webs, the chakram gained momentum as it blew the remains of monsters on the ground into the air.

“See!”

Tor swung his arm to the side. The tip of the chakrams exceeded the speed of sound, and the destructive sound of air being pushed away echoed through the room.

The chakrams blew away the remains that were in the air, causing them to fly towards the spider on the ceiling.

The spider reacted immediately, shooting out its webs into the remains.

For a moment, it looked like it would knock them out of the air, but instead of losing momentum, it only flew faster.

The spider was too shocked to react, and the remains crashed into it.

As the impact made the spider fall from the ceiling, Tor rushed towards it while slamming the chakrams into the ground.

Red thunder spread out, and the caltraps that were in the remains began to be pulled by the magnetic force.

And while the spider tried to shoot its webs in order to return to the ceiling, now that the carcass was being controlled by manipulating the magnetic pull, it moved in the spider’s way.

The spider still managed to land in a defensive position and then jump out of the way, just as the remains came crashing down from above.

However, Tor was now within range of it.

The spider bared its fangs angrily.

“Poison, I assume.”

Tor barely even looked at the liquid that shot out. He knew from experience, and so he had already moved out of the way.

He had thrown the chakram to the side, making it dig deep into the floor, and then used the magnetic force to pull himself away. After moving to the side of the spider in an instant, Tor stuck his right foot into the chakram that was in the ground, and kicked up in order to pull it out.

“Here’s the finishing blow.”

The chakram sliced off the spider’s head.

Knowing that bug-type monsters were often very resilient, Tor swung his chakrams to the side and cut off all of the spider’s legs as well.

And then he jumped back, just in case. However, the spider monster did not move at all.

Tor then turned to the entrance.

“Good work, Mr. Tor. Were you hurt?”

“I’m untouched, as you can see. What about the magitec seal?”

“According to Ms. Bastora, you have to go to the back of the room. However, they could not go, because of all the spider traps.”

“I see. Bastora, you can use the magitec seal now.”

“I’m on my way.”

Bastora and the others ran to the back of the room.

There was something like a swirl of black mist there.

Mailey stared at it.

“Is that the core of the dungeon?”

“Apparently. If you seal it, then the dungeon will not create any more monsters. Of course, that doesn’t include natural reproduction.”

In order to watch the process, Tor took the twins closer to the dungeon core.

It was said that these dungeon cores were gates to other worlds that the old civilization had opened, but no one knew where they connected to. Because there are no records of anyone ever coming back.

Bastora opened the lid of the cylindrical device and stuck her hand inside and turned the handle in order to activate it.

As soon as the magic circle appeared on the surface of the machine, a spherical seal that was about two meters in diameter appeared and swallowed up the dungeon core.

In principle, the dungeon core’s magic energy was being used to maintain the seal magic, and so as long as the dungeon core was not destroyed, it would continue to be sealed.

Bastora looked quite satisfied to have finished the job.

“Sealing complete. Let’s go back, everyone.”

With their goal completed now, Tor and the others started to make their way back.