Chapter 81

Eminira Dungeon Again (9)
The boss room was a desert. Still with the desert, huh...

After walking about three steps, a tail wrapped around my body, and a giant lizard about two meters long emerged from the sand.
Brother Gerald immediately slashed the giant lizard's head off in one stroke with his sword. I was thrown onto the sand.

Looking into the distance, I saw that Canal, too, had been caught by the tail of a giant lizard, but Gregory cut it down with his sword and freed him.

"Brother Gerald, what is going on here?"

This boss room is home to a giant lizard called a Kenge, which blends in with the sand. They don't have any poison, but if you step on their back, they’ll wrap their tail around the target and eat it.
They're slow-moving and can be defeated with a sword if you cut off their head or torso.
However, it's unknown how many Kenge are in this boss room.

They don't reveal themselves unless their backs are stepped on and they manage to ensnare something with their tail, so the only option is to walk around the room.
Even places that didn’t have any activity might have a Kenge appear if you step there after some time, so there’s no pattern.
The boss room ends when the desert disappears and the dropped loot appears in the center of the room, at which point the exit shows up.

Apparently, the condition for release isn't the number of Kenge defeated or the amount of time passed—it's unknown.
So, it seems the best we can do is split into groups of two or three and walk around the room.
Also, the best target for defeating them is the head.
If you aim for the torso, you have to be careful not to get hit by the Kenge's acid.

When I asked, "Has anyone ever been eaten by a Kenge here before? And what does it mean to avoid the acid?"

They said yes. Their teammate realized someone had been eaten and quickly cut off the Kenge’s head, which caused it to collapse and the person to come out.
But their clothes and parts of their skin had been melted by the acid inside the Kenge.
This team has many sword experts, so it should be okay.
So please, do your best and keep walking around, they said.

That's terrible, Brother Gerald.
Sure, I probably can’t defeat them with a sword.
So I think what they’re saying is that I should help out by acting as bait...
But still, getting wrapped up by tails over and over is just—ugh.
What exactly *is* the condition for the room to be cleared?

Since I don't know, I keep walking around while thinking.
Sometimes I step on a Kenge's back and get caught by its tail, and then Meyer or Wilson comes to help me.
The two behind me never get caught by Kenge.
Isn’t it unfair that it's always me?
Well, I can’t really complain since they’re saving me...

Then I heard an “Whoa!” and turned around to see Wilson had stepped on a Kenge and got tangled by its tail.
I thought Meyer would help, but Wilson used a Water Cutter to slice off the Kenge’s head himself and defeated it.
The Kenge’s head flew toward me.
As I was about to dodge it, I noticed its eyes were blue.
I tried to confirm it, but it fell into the sand and disintegrated.

Kenge eyes should be sand-colored.
They blend into the desert, so even their eyes should be sandy-colored.
Could it be...?

“Meyer, is it common for people to defeat Kenge by themselves like Wilson did?”

“If no one is nearby to help or if their arms are free, yes, sometimes people do it themselves.”

“Do Kenge eyes ever turn blue?”

“I’ve never seen that. Did you notice something?”

I explained that the Kenge Wilson defeated by himself had blue eyes and suggested maybe the condition to clear the room was the number of Kenge defeated by one’s own hand.

Apparently, everyone who enters this boss room ends up defeating at least one or two Kenge themselves.
Then we heard a scream—“Kyaa!”—and saw Allie being caught by a Kenge.
But Allie crushed its head with ice magic.
Ah, I didn’t catch whether its eyes turned blue.

After I shared my theory, everyone said they’d already defeated Kenge on their own a few times in this room.
As for how the men of the Golden Wings like Mr .Salem defeat them, they said that if their arms are free, they wedge their sword between their body and the tail, cut it, and then, once they can move, go for a counterattack.
So basically, if adults can defeat it on their own, they do.

I’ve fired Water Cutters at Kenge heads a few times too, but they just got deflected, so I gave up trying to defeat them myself.
My attack power still seems too low.
These are monsters from the 11th level, so it’s not going to be easy.
Watching the adults take them down so effortlessly made it look possible, but unfortunately, no luck.
Since it didn’t work, I left the rest to Meyer and Wilson nearby.
Canal and Linka were working with Gregory and Will.

Then Atre, who was near me, got caught by a Kenge’s tail.
I shouted “Atre!” but he calmly used Wind Cutter to slice the Kenge’s head off and landed smoothly on the sand.
Atre was so cool.
I saw the Kenge’s eyes change from sand color to blue before it crumbled away.

Then all the sand in the room suddenly disappeared, and in the center of the room lay stainless steel ingots and a large bag.
There were 28 ingots, and the large bag was full of various sizes of amethyst and citrine.

After leaving the boss room, I asked everyone how many Kenge they had each defeated personally.
The total was 28. Same as the number of ingots.

“Looks like your theory was right, Hardt. It’s the first time we’ve ever gotten out of that boss room this fast.” Said Brother Gerald.

“That’s true. I never thought that going around in pairs and trios to defeat them might’ve been working against us all along.” Added Meyer.

“So that means we can clear it more easily from now on.” I said.

Today’s subjugation ended there.

What do you think about this chapter?