Conqueror of the Nameless Dungeon
名はないダンジョンの征服者
… … …Captain, are you Okay!?
Captain, please answer me!?
Captain, please don’t leave alone….
I don’t want to be alone anymore…
Captain… … …
As my consciousness came back to me, I had heard Grim-chan’s sad voice. To think that I had made her cry again I was no good as a captain… to try and pacify her, I removed my back from the ground and sat on my bottom. ‘I am Okay thanks to you Grim-chan, and as long as I am alive I will never leave you alone.’ I tried to assure her.
While looking at my situation, I remembered why Grim-chan was crying on the first place. I then looked at the large hole above the ceiling which should have connected to the upper strata.
‘How did I survive such a fall?’
While it was easy to just say that something must have cushioned my fall. But from the looks of the darkness that stretched like forever on the large pit above something other than that should have saved me.
Then it reminded me of a certain skill that the Grimoire Atelier has that was always active, the Equivalent Damage skill. This skill converts the damage taken by captain to the ship and vice versa by 85.10%. Without any other explanation, this should be the only logical reason as to why I had survived that fall.
Grim-chan had saved me yet again and seems that she even used her own life to save mine. I mean, that fall (cushioned or not) should have left me bruised or a broken bone or two and yet as I checked my body, there was no sign of those damage. I was indeed blessed with a great partner.
Feeling that her worries would escalate with me sitting, I decided to scout the area. Surveying the surroundings, I found out that the new floor I was in had a cave like ambiance but was totally different from the first 10 floors. It was wide and the ceiling was quite far if I had to compare it look like a 5 story building (about 4.2672 meters in height).
As I surveyed the area there were three things that gave me chills and somewhat an inclination as to where I am:
First was around me are countless swords of different types and sizes planted on the ground.
Second where the bones, lying here and there some beside a sword others simply stuck on the wall.
And lastly, with faint glowing of light blue at the far end of the cave a round object that seem to have decorated the wall perfectly shown dangerously.
‘I was hoping that I am wrong…. But, this place is not the…’
But I never got to finish those words…
*HOWL
Captain the ENDLESS ABYSSMAL DRAGON EMPEROR (DUNGEON LORD) had used a racial specific skill, 《ULTIMATE HOWL》
I am guessing this skill is just like KIZUARI’s and had definitely induced me with an abnormality known as fear making my movements sluggish. Thankfully with my natural resistance thanks to my training with the bosses on the Forest Island I should be able to relieve its effects sooner.
Captain, it would seem that it has yet to discover you, quick Hide!!!!
I don’t need to confirm whether it really has found me or not, after thanking Grim-chan in my head I invoked made sure to silently sneak and erased my presence to hide between a few boulders.
Right, due to my carelessness I have been brought here on the boss room, well not just any normal boss room for I am in –the Final Boss Room.
******
With the monster’s power it has probably noticed me even if I erase my presence, I am not too sure if this guy is trying to sow fear on me little by little by completely ignoring me or looking down on me completely, but hopefully it would give me time enough to remove the fear ailment and assess my options.
I had checked asked Grim-chan as to my currently location to assess my whereabouts in relevance to the distance between me and Grimoire-chan, and the numbers shows that using RETURN to SHIP was futile… after all she had said it with staggering voice the words: 1,000 KM. So escaping using that skill was no good.
My next action should be getting away from this room. I then try to locate an exit if there is one then running away would be possible, but it looks like there is only one entrance and exit to this place… the pit where I fell from. I was kind of hoping that the door was just hidden but, trying to locate it was a leeway I simple did not have, should the monster notice that I was trying to run away from it, I am sure it would change from observing my next move to hunting me down.
The EMERGENCY RR still had 15 days before the cool down time lapses and I don’t think that the monster would wait that long, just to keep observing me.
After knowing that escaping here was going to be futile, I decide to lay out some options:
1.Ask to be spared (Really!)
2.Try to locate for that hidden exit (which could be non-existent) and use it to crawl up
3.Fight it! (Really!!!)
The first option was something I wanted to joke around, although not the time and place I needed it to clear my resolve; the second one was already rejected moments ago but decided that one option was just too few this was for the same reason for the first which is to strengthen my resolve. I mean whether I decide to or not there is just one option left to take -option number 3.
Fighting this boss monster was going to be almost impossible. But fighting or not fighting is not really the question I have to ask… but winning against it… now that was the real question. I can fight it and lose… miserable… but if I have to die anyway I want to go down taking a limb or two.
So, with my resolve, I then prepared for the battle.
*****
There is no shortage of weapons here in this area so I can use as many to try and attack the boss. All I needed to do was memorize the position of all of these weapons so that I can make use of them for a specific exploit.
I also made sure to take a look at my own weapons. Currently I have 4 swords that are no longer battle worthy in the Detachment Room (2 NINJATOUs and 2 BASELARDs). I also replenished my SHURIKEN, KUNAI and THROWING DAGGERS and took 250 arrows from the Arrow Basket and place them in the 5 makeshift quivers, with a ratio of 50 per quiver.
I did not forget to take note of the MANA Crystal in the area, Thankfully or you could say that ‘as to be expected on the Final Boss Room’ the area had all the elements stored in them, which means it had either a resistance to all or was hiding its weakness, personally I wish that it would be the latter.
Weapons aside I also readied my defensive equipment, I took out the unnecessary clothing I was wearing and thankfully the STEEL CHAINMAIL had still a great durability in it. My TEKKOU and LEG GUARDS were something I had worn from the start of this dungeon siege and still had the durability to last until coming to this point I wish they would last longer too.
All my skills are going to be put to the test here, especially my movement skills like SENKOU (FLASH STEP) and HANPOU (HALF-STEP), after all I could not afford to get hit even once. The one in front of me (size wise and combat wise) had large margin between skill and strength like heaven and earth. So getting hit even once was equivalent to death sentence.
With the preparation is done and hope that would be enough… It was now time for the next step… going on the offensive.
*****
As I have said earlier, I can’t afford to get hit even once in this battle, because the opponent this time is a smart combat frenzy bipedal dragon, it had an almost human build but retained its dragon head and tails it stood around 4.75 Meters tall (tail included) with an impressive body build, one hit from that will instantly kill me.
Since Grim-chan had mentioned that this one is a dragon, then I would have to watch out for its breath attacks but then again just merely looking at its visage, it was intimidating enough to die by just gazing at it.
Although my goal for this fight is to last until the 15th day so that I can use the EMERGENCY RR and head back to the Grimoire atelier.
I for one think this is loco but then again, I was left with no choice as I can’t just keep running or hiding away from it. Well, there are no place for me to run or hide though and so instead of running or going on a defensive I decided to attack it, as they say the perfect defense is a relentless offense.
If I want to survive until the 15th day, I have to make sure to keep attacking it and also make sure to stop it from using attacks that will be disadvantageous to me.
*****
15 more minutes before the fear ailment that should be in effect loses to my natural resistance, but before that time comes to pass I have to try and memories as many of the weapons scattered around that would seem like would be a good damage maker.
I then took out the MONOCLE of ITEM APPRAISAL and have it equipped I attached a MANA Crystal beside it as a source of MANA instead of my own and started to appraise the weapons pierced to the ground.
.MONOCLE of ITEM APPRAISAL {
•SWORD OF BARBATOS (two-handed sword) ???
•ARADVIL (great sword)
•AXE OF GALMORAD (battle axe)
•SPEAR OF EPSILON (spear)
•FABNIL (dagger)
•ANCIENT KAMPILAN (one-handed sword)
•FLAMING KRIS(ONE handed sword)
•MURAMASA (two-handed sword)
•EXCALIBUR (one-handed sword)
•GUNGNIR (spear)
•ALTIVIAN CLAYMORE (two handed)
•HARD EDGE GREAT SWORD (great sword)
•ARC BOW (short bow)
•LUNE (long bow)
•FOREST EDGE (short sword)
•GREAT ESTOC (two handed sword)
•ARGILES LEATHER (leather armor)
•ALTIVIAN SHIELD (shield)
•CROSS SHIELD (shield)
•FABLOS SHIELD (shield)
•MIRROR SHIELD (shield)
}
For the time being I memorized the location of the ones I had marked that would be useful in my battle. While there were countless weapons everywhere there were some more to take note on - the shields. They should save my life in tight spots.
I also flagged out the equipment that the MONOCLE of ITEM APPRAISAL can appraise, I am not saying that they are trash, but since I am fighting a boss monster with great offensive power, I should probably go for anything above A class defensive equipment.
While at it I also took note of accessories in the areas that had good defensive powers and just like with the shields would switch out constantly so that I can increase my chances of survival.
It will be a bit troublesome but I will have to keep equipping the MONOCLE of ITEM APPRAISAL for this battle to watch out for items that would help me fight this boss.
Now just one minute is left for the fear ailment to wear-off. Using that as a signal I will have to fight for dear life.
*****
As the time lapsed I made my move.
They say the first who gets the element of surprise, gets the upper hand. Although I am pretty sure that the dragon boss has already perceived my existence, I was still able to make a surprise comeback if I openly fight it rather than try to run away.
3 minutes… … …
2 minutes… …
1 minute…
Operation: ‘Survive to the 15th Day’ start. Day 1.
I first started with long distance attacks using my WOODEN TRIAL RED OAK LONG BOW. Well, the dragon seems to have perceived my attacks weak as it did not even try to evade them. None of them pierced the hardness of the scales the dragon’s body, it had the perfect defense.
But I was not about to stop or lose focus. If my attacks are not effective then I just have to create some skills that would be effective.
They say that when your life is on the line you learn faster the hard way and right now it was kicking in my instincts and so immediately formulated three bow and arrow skills that should be effective against the armor of the dragon.
HEBIHIME: VIPER SHOT
HAMA NO YA: PIERCING SHOT
MYOUBU: 9 POINT SHOT
The dragon thought they were the same attack, but a surprise was clearly visible in its eyes when all 11 shots pierced its hard scaled body.
“Yosh!” without stopping my momentum, I released more arrows. My rule was not move as long as it did not move. But clearly it was only a matter of time for it would start moving towards my direction. But until that time comes, I will continue with my long-range attack emptying my quivers if I must.
But before I had released the last arrow for the first of the five quivers I heard some sort of snort from the dragon, was it annoyance or that it could no longer take the abuse I did not know, all I know is it was now time for it to move.
I knew that it was not going to stay there, but I was hoping that it would continue its haughty attitude and just keep staying there as if saying: ‘is that all you’ve got!’ or ‘Some mosquitos are biting me, I need to apply mosquito repellant’. But no, it was now moving its hind leg as if readying to push and launch itself towards me.
‘SENKOU’ please work with me on this one’ I thought to myself, and as soon as the dragon launched itself in a speed that was superhuman… supermonster, I then counter its speed with my own with SENKOU to move not away from it but towards it. I then dove below it while unsheathing my METAL FORGED TRIAL BASELARD doing 4 consecutive slices in its belly.
As soon as I and the monster landed opposite each other, I take no time to think and turn towards it had landed and dash forward dropping my broken baselards and instantly replacing it with other weapons from the area.
This is something that I was so grateful that I had learned while I had trained both on the Forest-Island and inside this dungeon –the MANEUVER Skills (HALF-STEP and SENKOU).
HALF-STEP is a maneuver skill that allows me to shorten my movements by half, and increasing my overall speed. SENKOU on another hand is another maneuver skill that instantly moves me to a direction I choose.
One good thing about these two is that both have a minimal lag time which means I can use them almost instantly. As bonus, during that minimal lag time I can use either skill to change to another direction or action.
This was how I manage to move opposite the dragon after landing almost instantly: First I used SENKOU to move forward, then HALF-STEP to turn around and SENKOU again to dash towards the boss monster.
These two skills can also be used for an instant evasive maneuver from incoming attacks even while I am in a middle of a big move, this two cancel each other and allow me to move in any direction I want even while running at top speed.
I then officially named this the SENKOU-HANPO Maneuver Tactics.
Break it fast Captain!
Be very careful!
