CH 11

[Decisive Battle, Living Armor Knight!]

“Whoa, that’s a big door.”

Several hours after I began my conquest of ‘Underground Tomb of the Shinigami’. It was when I finally reached level 19. I turned around the corner at the end of the passage as I killed my way through zombies, and there I came across a giant door.

“…This has to be the boss room no matter how you look at it. It says in the strategy guide site that the boss is a big zombie named Zombie King, if I remember correctly.”

Hmm~~~should I give it a try? Or should I turn back? Francoise said my new equipment would be ready by tomorrow. It would be safer if I challenge the boss after getting it.

I heard that if you died, you’d lose 20% of your experience points. And there was no guarantee that ‘Guts’ would always activate every time I took a hit, I’d rather not risk it.

“Alright, I already killed a ton of monsters today, anyway. Let’s call it a day. I’m not a reckless guy who doesn’t know when to call it quits, after all~.”

It happened when I turned around. Po~psuddenly echoed, and a message was displayed at the edge of my vision.

[World News! Goblin King has been defeated for the first time by the party of Zansword, Fuko, Aid, and Reinhard von Edelfield! Dungeon: Goblin Fortress, fastest capture completed!]

W-whaaaaaaaaaaat?! Could it be that if you became the first to defeat a boss monster, it would be announced to all players?!

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey… I never heard of that…!

“U-uoooooooo! I’ve got no other choice! I’ll take down a boss, too!”

A man has to brave it out when he’s faced with a challenge, no matter how dangerous it may seem, after all!!! I’ll make my name resound throughout the world!

“Let’s go! Pontaro, Ponjiro, Ponsaburo, Ponshiro, Pongoro!”

“““““Kishashaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!””””” My underlings cried excitedly almost as if saying, “Roger, Boss!”

After taming Ponjiro and Ponsaburo, I continued wandering around and found some new Living Weapons, so I roughen them up and made them my underlings. Our gang had started to take shape now!

By the way, thanks to the increase in my Luck, I’d managed to tame a zombie as well, but due to its inability to feel pain and its rotten brains, it’d gone on a wild rampage without listening to my instruction and got itself killed. Rest in peace, Zomtaro.

For our friend who had fallen (meaninglessly and stupidly), let’s take the boss’s head!

“Onward~!”

“““““Kisha~!”””””

We pushed open the giant door and entered the boss room.

◆◆◇◆

“…What’s up with this place? It’s so dark.”

Beyond the door was a hall-like place. But it was dark, making it difficult to see the surroundings.

Hmm, this feels like a perfect place for jump scares, I thought as I took a few steps forward, but at that time.

“—A challenger?”

A low, muffled voice echoed through the darkness. In the next moment, the torches by the wall began to light up one by one, and the owner of the voice became clear.

Wait… who is this guy?!

“O adventurer who opposes the Demon King, I will be your opponent!”

At the other end of the hall was a knight in full body armor!

Taking a closer look, I saw the words “Boss Monster: Living Armor Knight” above its head. Wait, it wasn’t Zombie King?! This was different from the beta!

“If you are not going to come, then I will come to you!”

“?!”

After summoning two swords from seemingly out of nowhere, the Armor Knight charged toward me!

So fast?! In a matter of seconds, he appeared right in front of me and swung down his swords in a cross shape, sending me flying!

“Guhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?!”

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

‘Guts’ activates! You survive with 1 HP from a fatal wound!

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Shit, he almost got me! I quickly regained my posture and readied my bow, but then the bastard hurled his swords at me!

“Uwaa?! That’s cheating!”

I managed to avoid them by rolling on the ground!

I mean, who could have anticipated that?! Since when did knights attack by throwing their swords?!

“Damn you, this time…!”

As I was about to counterattack, another unexpected thing happened!

“Gijaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Urameshiaaaaaaaaaaa!”

“Wha—!?”

The two swords he had thrown floated in the air and let out a screech!

These things were ‘Living Weapons’?! Even the boss monster’s weapons were monsters!

…Even though I’d received so many surprises by this point, there was still more in store for me.

“This will be your end, challenger! Activate art, Summon Evil Sword!”

The moment the Armor Knight shouted, three new swords materialized around him!

Alongside the previous swords, they all flew toward me simultaneously!

“Ha, haha… I’m fucked…”

I muttered in the face of the incoming five swords.

This bastard was clearly not an opponent that could be defeated solo. You had to form a party with other players and prepared appropriate countermeasures before challenging him.

It was stupid to try to defeat him alone as you’d have a lot of disadvantages. The odds of anyone beating him on the first try were almost nil.

But…

“…That’s why it’s hyping me up!”

I nocked five arrows to my bow and fired them at the incoming group of swords!

“Activate art! ‘Speed Burst’, ‘Power Burst’!”

Pontaro and the gang accelerated. The jet-black arrows destroyed all the swords and went on to pierce through Armor Knight’s body!

“Graaaaaaaah?! H-how…! How could such thin arrows easily destroy my Living Weapons?!” Armor Knight let out a startled voice. Just as I’d expected, the inside of his armor was empty.

I answered his question as I called Pontaro and the gang back.

“Why couldn’t they? After all, these arrows are possessed by Living Weapons.

Not to mention, Pontaro and the gang had leveled up a lot since they had become my familiars. With the addition of support from my arts, there was no way they would lose to mere Living Weapons!

“You… how dare you make my kin be your subordinates!” He roared as he activated his arts again. The space around him fluctuated, and this time six swords materialized. Of course, all of them were Living Weapons.

“You are going to die for sure this time! Gooooooo!”

Living Weapons shot forward in response to Armor Knight’s cry.

I didn’t have enough arrows to stop all of them. I only had five, after all.

Except!

“Crush them, you idiots!”

I fired six (…) Living Weapons and strengthened them with arts to destroy the new group of swords!

Haa, an AI that was too capable sure was something else! It had been quietly finishing the ‘registration’ process as I had been answering the bastard’s question in the last few seconds!

“I-impossible?! Don’t tell me, you…!”

“Oh, my bad, Sir Armor Knight. Three of the minions you summoned earlier have chosen to come under my wing!”

With a smirk, I materialized the remaining two Living Weapons that had just become my underling.

Yup, this was the power of a Summoner! You could make the minions summoned by a boss monster switch to your side!

Whether or not you succeeded depended on your Luck, but unfortunately for the bastard, I was going down the pure Luck path!

“You psycho… no normal person would fight that way…!”

“This is the fighting style invented by the genius of yours truly. What nonsense are you speaking about? Alright, the real fight starts now, Armor Knight!”

Eight jet-black arrows spread out around me, and I aimed my bow at him!

A/N:

・[Sad news] Even the AI sees our MC as a psycho…!

T/N:

Ponshiro=Pon the Fourth

Pongoro=Pon the Fifth