Eminira Dungeon (9)
We left the boss room and headed for the sixth floor.
Apparently, the sixth floor is also infested with taupes. However, these ones are around 30 cm long, very numerous, and there are pitfalls everywhere. The holes are about 20 cm in diameter—just enough for a foot to slip into—and about 50 to 60 cm deep. Supposedly, there's one taupe in each hole.
But these taupes can use magic. If you fall into a hole, they shoot lightning magic at you, and your body gets jolted. The magic isn’t very powerful, but they keep casting it until you escape the hole. Being zapped by electricity? No way! I absolutely hate that!!
On this floor as well, Brother Gerald and Meyer mowed down the grass from the roots, revealing that the place really was full of holes. I’d say they were spaced about one meter apart. But since they’re randomly placed in every direction—vertical, horizontal, diagonal—it’s easy to fall into one if you let your guard down.
Here, the magic users cast spells at the holes. If you try to use a sword, you might finish it in one strike, but if you don’t, you risk getting electrocuted when trying to retrieve your sword. Normally, people take the risk of being shocked to defeat them, but since we have a lot of magic users this time, three of the men from the Golden Wings said they’d focus on collecting loot. Linka is also joining the item collection team. The loot is iron plates that fall into the holes, and they’re retrieved using magnets here too.
Hamilton and Kamuela are participating with earth magic. They’re testing things like dropping 15 cm-wide stone balls or 20 cm-high rocks, or using earth needles. It’s their first time trying any of this, so they don’t know if it’ll work, but they’re treating it as a test for future use.
“This is our first step in proving that we can defeat monsters with earth magic.” Kamuela said.
“We’ve been drilled hard by Commander Arcland these past few months.” Hamilton added.
I apologized, saying it was my fault, but they told me not to worry—they were actually glad they could use earth magic in combat now, and that they should be the ones thanking me instead.
Canal can make earth balls with his magic, but they’re not solid enough and break apart upon impact. So this time, he’ll drop boiling water balls into the holes like I do. Atre and Ripka are also joining in, making it a full-force effort.
Partway through, the taupe numbers became too overwhelming, and we couldn’t advance. So we decided to mow only a 2-meter-wide strip of grass ahead of us, and only deal with the holes within that strip to make progress.
We arrived at the boss room.
Even within that 2-meter width, there were still plenty of holes, and it was exhausting. It’s a manpower-heavy strategy, but with so many people, it’s still manageable.
This boss room contains creatures called “Skoros”—giant centipede-like monsters about a meter long. The Skoros shoot their own feet at you like arrows. The troublesome thing is that these feet regenerate quickly, so dodging alone won’t help defeat them. Their weak point is the head. If you crush it, they stop moving. Pouring boiling water or fire all over their bodies is also effective.
There are about 20 to 30 Skoros in the boss room, and they all shoot foot-arrows at once, so we have to dodge them while targeting their weak points. The knights constructed walls using earth magic. They left gaps between the walls and attacked through those gaps with magic.
The Golden Wings advance with Linka’s defensive barriers. Allie targeted the Skoros’ heads with her spells, while the three men aimed for the heads with their swords.
This time, we’re going with the knights’ strategy since we have many magic users.
As soon as we enter, we’ll launch boiling water balls and fireballs, and immediately build walls. It’s better to reduce their numbers a bit first.
The door turned blue, signaling we could enter the boss room. We ready ourselves to fire magic immediately.
At Brother Gerald’s shout of “Fire!”, Canal, Ripka, and I launched our spells.
A wall of earth formed right in front of us. As expected from the knights, their response was fast.
We heard the sound of Skoros’ feet hitting the wall. Some even flew through the gaps between the walls.
Even if we attack through the gaps, a lot of the spells miss, and it takes time.
Is there a better way? Maybe rain boiling water from the ceiling? Like a shower?
Well, let’s give it a try.
Making sure not to douse us in hot water, I visualized a shower and launched a boiling water ball at the ceiling above where I thought the Skoros were.
The ball burst against the ceiling, and hot water rained down. It worked, but I couldn’t see the results. What should I do...?
“Linka, would you mind casting a defensive spell if we step forward?”
“Of course, but are you changing the plan?”
I explained that I wanted to try hitting the ceiling with boiling water balls and using wind magic to direct the splattered hot water onto the Skoros. Then, once they were weakened, we could strike with swords or spells for a quicker defeat.
We changed the plan to my idea since it seemed like it would waste less mana.
So those who could use boiling water—me, Canal, and Wilson—and those with wind magic—Brother Gerald, Atre, and Meyer—worked together to adjust the boiling water to hit the Skoros effectively.
We stepped out from behind the earth walls and stood in front of the defensive barrier.
There were still over 20 Skoros left. Arrows made of their feet flew at us, but they hit the barrier and dropped to the ground.
We aimed our boiling water balls at the ceiling above the Skoros, and Brother Gerald and the others adjusted the scattered hot water with wind magic so it would land on the enemies.
Gradually, the Skoros began to slow down, and their arrow-like feet stopped flying.
Once that happened, we dropped the defensive barrier and launched a simultaneous assault targeting their heads with earth, ice, fire, water, and wind magic.
One after another, the Skoros fell, and the battle ended.
The loot was 26 iron ingots.
What do you think about this chapter?
