Chapter 42: Killing the Dungeon Boss
Nanako wanted to run straight into his arms when she saw how Haruhiro defeated the Divine Wolf Spirit, however, just when she is about to run Nanako saw how tense he still looked. It dawned upon her that perhaps Haruhiro has yet to completely kill the enemy.
The next moment proved her right, the Divine Wolf Spirit emanated a very powerful dark and gloomy aura that appeared as a black mist-like object. Both of them could see how it manifested the aura and even though it seems like this mist-like object would be blown by the wind easily... Haruhiro is sure that the truth of whatever this is, it will not be blown by the wind easily.
That is because the moment the dungeon boss started to produce this mist-like object, he could somehow feel that its overall strength is growing. Not just its strength but everything about this "transforming" dungeon boss is giving Haruhiro a feeling of despair and powerlessness.
Just like that day when he was killed by Sloth.
A feeling where even if he does whatever he could, even if he fought will all that he has... It will never be enough to fight against that opponent. Haruhiro can't believe that he is once again facing the same kind of situation.
Even the battle before with both Sloth and the person in white did not leave him with this feeling of powerlessness. Sloth back then did not have the strength of the Sloth that killed Haruhiro and the person in white underestimated the two of them. Because of these factors, Haruhiro could confidently say that he could defeat them if he was to ever go back in time and battle with them again.
However, this... This is just different.
The strength of the dungeon boss continued to rise, Haruhiro fears that if this continues then he will have to think of a way to escape with the both of them or at worst... Let Nanako escape by herself. Though Haruhiro is disinclined at choosing either option because both of these options would end up with him not having the item on the altar.
With just how well protected it is, Haruhiro is sure that the item is incredible and though he believes that it is not at the level that Nanako wishes it to be, it would still be helpful for them. He doesn't want to miss such an opportunity for their base camp to grow stronger in strength.
Haruhiro silently returned to Nanako's side, he fears that while the dungeon boss is strengthening itself he would be affected by the aura that it is releasing. Nanako saw him come close to her and felt relieved, she thought about how she should suggest they give up on the item and just leave.
However, thinking of how he's been acting greedily all these while, her confidence in convincing him grew smaller.
"Haru-chan! What's happening?"
"It's growing stronger, either we kill it now or we run straight out of here."
Nanako looked at Haruhiro and knew that he's already decided on what he would be doing. Sighing she said to him, "Okay Haru-chan. Let's go kill that monster." Though she's very unwilling to fight this monster since it seems a crazy idea and because she believes that they're already strong enough, however, since Haruhiro may not leave with her then she'll just have to give it her all.
Anything else she says will just go in one of his ears and exit the other. Nanako will just have to stay here, she will never leave him behind and she would rather they die together.
Haruhiro just silently nodded and summoned his shadows. Now that the dungeon boss is focused on strengthening itself, Haruhiro could attack freely without thinking of how he should dodge its retaliation. Of course, he will not lower his guard, he's already learned that lesson the hard way.
He's already able to summon eight shadows that he could freely transform into any shapes. Right now he's transformed four of these eight into sharp spikes while the remaining four are transformed into tentacles. These tentacles are ready to protect him whenever a mishap may happen.
The Hero's Pendant may be useful in protecting him by erecting a strong barrier but he just took notice that the pendant has five small gems embedded on it. Four are embedded at each end of the X- shape while at the center is a slightly larger gem. These gems have the color blue on it, though one of these gems seem to have lost its color turning black.
That's how Haruhiro came to the conclusion that perhaps every time the pendant protects him, the gems will lose their colors and turn black. Signifying how it has already protected him. Now, Haruhiro is still unsure whether those gems will be able to regain their lost colors but until he knows... Haruhiro would prefer not to use it all up.
Four shadows made their way towards the dungeon boss, as they did, the shadows merged and formed into one large spike. Just like earlier, Haruhiro attacked the place where its heart is supposed to be.
The desired outcome of Haruhiro did not happen though, the shadow was not able to penetrate the body of the dungeon boss and instead Haruhiro could feel his strength being drained. Haruhiro quickly withdrew his shadows.
Haruhiro looked at the dungeon boss with fear in his eyes.
He could no longer attack using his shadows or else he would have his strength drained, 'What should I do? How do we defeat this enemy?'
As Haruhiro fell deep into his thoughts, Nanako attacked using her flames. She summoned around five of her flame arrows and once it hit the dungeon boss, Haruhiro was surprised by the outcome. The dungeon boss reacted, it howled as if it was in great pain.
Haruhiro then quickly told Nanako, "Don't stop! Continue to attack, burn it!"
Nanako complied and continued to conjure flames and used these flames to attack the dungeon boss. The flames continued to burn the enemy and the dungeon boss howled in pain.
It wanted to attack Nanako but it hasn't yet finished both strengthening and healing itself. Now it's taking an even longer time and energy as it continues to be burned by Nanako's flames.
[Host is reminded by Ava, Kobayashi Nanako has been categorized as an Incarnate. It is yet unknown what kind of Incarnate she is but what is known is that her flames are currently purifying the dungeon boss.]
'Purifying?'
Haruhiro thought about it for a moment before understanding how such flames are hurting the dungeon boss.
[Divine Wolf Spirit(Cursed)
- Guardian Spirit of Goddess Terra's Temple until it was cursed by Dark Entities. They not only massacred every living thing inside the Temple but also tried to take away the item left behind by the prince mentioned by Clergyman Ibanhiel. Failing this task, they can only curse the Guardian to stop others from gaining the item.]
He recalled the information that was given by the System and focused on the "Cursed" part that is beside the name of the Divine Wolf Spirit.
Haruhiro nodded his head, it seems that this is the reason why Nanako could easily burn the dungeon boss. He now knows that this battle will be easier with Nanako's flames.
However, before he could feel at ease a question popped inside his head.
'Was it also because that it is her flames that she could kill undeads easily with just one flame arrow? Because it doesn't burn them but instead purifies the undead?
Is it also because of this reason that Nanako received their gratitude? Since she freed their souls from everlasting torment of being neither dead nor alive?'
It seems to him that this is the real reason why Nanako received Village's Gratitude, a bracelet that enhances her spirit or in her words "aura".
As he thought of the bracelet, Haruhiro now knows that having Nanako wear it immediately was a wise choice. If she's not wearing it right now, Haruhiro doubts whether Nanako can handle this much energy expenditure in fighting the dungeon boss.
The dungeon boss no longer has any chance of recovering. It's now almost burnt to a crisp by the purifying flames of Nanako.
After a while, the dungeon boss howled once again though this time it did not howl in pain but in what seems to be in relief. Nanako did not understand why but Haruhiro does.
Just like the Villagers the dungeon boss was forced to get stuck in this place, cursed. Thinking about this, Haruhiro's eyes shone with a strange glint.
'Maybe there would be another item that says "gratitude"?'
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