Chapter 63.3

63 Part 3

After confirming the effects of the medicine on both Karen and himself, Haruki readied his two short swords.

Rhea shook her leaves as if agreeing with them.

Akane nodded silently and held her staff tightly.

Haruki prepared himself and began to make his way into the floor.

His footsteps were stealthy.

They walked on while making as little sound as possible.

Wasn’t there a chance that his Covert skill would increase by doing this?

That thought scared Haruki.

He hurriedly took out his Board to confirm, but his Covert skill was still at 3.

“…”

— Whew.

Haruki put his Board away as he let out a sigh of relief.

If his Covert skill had increased, there would be no point to this.

Haruki and Karen proceeded silently so as to not waste the medicine’s effect.

They reached the place where they had withdrawn the other day, but no Chachas appeared so far.

But they must be somewhere close.

Haruki’s Detection did pick up the presence of a few monsters on their way there.

But they didn’t seem to be getting closer to Haruki.

They must have failed to notice them since they made no smell or sounds.

After some more walking, they came across a Chacha with white fur.

It looked like it could be the boss.

Haruki sends a signal to Karen using his eyes and hands.

When Karen nodded, Haruki took a deep breath and stopped.

The next instant, Haruki jumped forward.

100 meters. 50 meters.

The boss still hadn’t noticed his presence.

At 30 meters, the boss finally noticed him.

It got ready for combat, but it was a little too late.

Before the boss could finish getting ready, Haruki’s blade flashed.

“– Ha!”

With a fluid movement of his short sword, Haruki cut off the boss’ right hand.

“Gwoooooh!!”

Fresh blood gushed out from the smooth cut.

There was no resistance from the attack at all.

It even cut through bone with ease.

Was this because his Strength score was 4?

No, this was all the short sword’s own power.

Both the Magic Sword in his right hand and his Werewolf Short Sword on his left hand felt as if they were alive.

— I’m sorry.

Haruki apologized to his swords for having used them in such a sloppy way up until now.

“Gaaahhh!”

The boss counterattacked.

It held his remaining left hand aloft.

However…

— Vrooom!

The boss’ body was struck by lightning.

The lightning attack stunned, but wasn’t enough to make it fall onto the ground.

Still, it prevented it from attacking.

The thunderous noise caused by Karen’s attack and the boss’ roar revealed our presence to the surrounding Chachas.

The ones that were closer began to run up to Haruki and Karen.

Haruki could tell as much using his Detection skill.

And it looked like Rhea had noticed that as well.

She quickly released a barrage of potato bullets onto any Chachas that would approach.

However, Chachas are very strong and tough.

Potato bullets weren’t going to be enough to keep them at bay.

There was no second to spare.

“–!”

Haruki attacked the stiffened boss with all his strength.

He imitated the moves he had seen in the videos.

The tip of his sword followed a smooth flow, danced beautifully, and plunged itself in the boss’ chest.

Then it came out on its back.

The moment Haruki pulled his short sword out, the boss’ body collapsed onto the ground.

The dungeon flickered, signaling the first time this boss had been defeated.

The Chachas that were drawing near suddenly turned tail after the boss’ defeat, and fled the area.

Apparently the boss of this floor was a “Surround Type” boss, a kind of monster that Haruki had never faced before.

— Good grief, these “Surround Types” are quite bothersome…

If something had happened that caused them to take longer to defeat the boss than they did, they would have been swarmed by the surrounding Chachas.

In that scenario, Haruki and Karen could have been forced to split, and the worst possible outcome could have happened.

The difficulty of this floor is too high for a team of two.

To level up, or to increase the number of team members?

If a similar boss appears in the future, Haruki could be forced to choose among these options.

The boss’ corpse was absorbed into the dungeon, and a drop appeared.

The drop for this boss fight was ‘Chacha Fur’ and ‘Magic Iron’.

These drops seemed a bit lackluster compared to the ones obtained on the 10th and 11th floors.

Still, defeating a boss doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get a good drop.

Just because bosses can drop really good stuff doesn’t mean that they will every time.

From all the items Haruki had collected from bosses, the most useful so far was the Magic Vase.

Other than that, most of them are just materials or trinkets for selling at a high price.

Rare items don’t appear that easily.

Though since this is a boss drop, one could easily expect it to be something really good.

Haruki collected the items and disappointedly headed towards the 12th floor.

After activating the gate, Haruki looked around.

The 12th floor should be a food floor.

What kind of food monsters would appear there?

The floor looked just like the other ones. It was a vast grassland.

However, the quality of the grass in the 12th floor looked a bit different.

“… Yellow?”

The tips of the leaves had a slight tone of yellow, unlike those on the 11th floor.

That was the only difference that Haruki could notice.

“Let’s check things out.”

“Okay.”

Haruki continued to walk together with Karen.

At that moment, Rhea became tense.

Her leaves felt thorny as she posed them over Haruki’s shoulder.

What was Rhea reacting to?

Haruki hadn’t been able to pinpoint the location of any monsters using his Detection skill.

He couldn’t hear any noise either.

As a precaution, Haruki expanded the range of his Detection to the maximum, and then…

“…!?”

He suddenly gulped.

There were a large number of monsters at the edge of Haruki’s Detection range.

As they were, Haruki and Karen were completely surrounded by monsters from a distance.