Worthless Skill Escape (WN)

Chapter 124

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TL: ALT

Chapter 124 – Floor Boss

Unlike A-rank dungeons, S-rank dungeons have floor bosses on every floor.

This is one of the factors that makes S-rank dungeons harder to get through.

However, there are benefits to having floor bosses.

There are return portals before and after the floor boss rooms.

However, these are for return only.

If you return from the portal before the floor boss, you will have to restart from the floor entrance.

Even if you return from the portal after the floor boss, you will have to start from the dungeon entrance, which is the beginning of the first floor.

However, there is some relief for the latter case.

“Whew… I’m going to take a short break.”

I decided to take a short break in the safe zone in front of the boss’s room.

Monsters never come into this empty room with the statue of the goddess.

Unless there was a flood like in the Hikarigaoka Park dungeon.

It seems that the higher the rank, the larger the safe zone in the dungeon.

Perhaps the assumption is that multiple parties are meant to explore high-ranked dungeons.

But from an explorer’s perspective, it is the lower-ranked dungeons, where people tend to concentrate, that should have the largest safe zones.

This safe zone could hold a hundred people, but I’m the only one here.

“After all, there’s no one here.”

Of course, I have not seen any other explorers in this dungeon yet.

It’s a dungeon that even has a base of the Self-Defense Force and a branch of the Explorers Association nearby in case of a flood.

In terms of danger level, it is the most dangerous dungeon in the country.

It stands out from the crowd of S-rank dungeons.

Even when compared to S-Rank dungeons overseas, only the Pyramid of King Khufu, Machu Picchu, and the Great Library of Alexandria dungeons can be said to be more dangerous than the Okutama Lake Dungeon after its collapse.

It is even possible that the dungeon may have partially surpassed them, considering the unprecedented phenomenon of dungeon collapse.

“Is it really okay?”

I ask myself.

I put aside the “do it or don’t do it, make up your mind” type of thinking.

It is said that if you do it, even the monsters will be scared away, but no matter how much you decide to do it, it doesn’t mean that they will flinch.

When it comes to battle, it is your ability, your preparation, and the luck of the moment that will decide the outcome.

“I have the ability. I’m prepared. As for luck… I don’t know.”

While the job world, in general, tends to be “forgiving” to me as a high school student, it would be naive in another sense to think that this extends to the combat aspect.

“If I die here… Honoka-chan will be sad. So will Sayuki, so will Haruhara.”

In the original world, I also had something to carry on my back.

My parents, whom I caused a lot of trouble in the end.

Serika, who always believed in me and waited for me.

The situation is different from the job world, but Honoka-chan and Haruka-san are also important people.

But in the job world, I have a lot more on my shoulders.

Haruhara is my classmate, and together with Sayuki and Honoka-chan are members of my guild, Saber Saber.

Honoka-chan is also my girlfriend.

Of course, I have a close relationship with Honoka-chan’s mother, Haruka-san.

There are countless other people that I have met through my activities as an explorer.

In addition to Saber Saber, I sometimes team up with other explorers to explore.

There are even people with whom I’ve gotten out of sticky situations.

In the job world, high school life is going well, which is hard for me to imagine in the skill world.

I have some classmates I can call friends, and I have a good relationship with some who are not.

Comparing me in the skill world and me in the job world.

If I compare them calmly, it is certain that I am needed by many more people in the job world.

So I can’t die by mistake.

But…

“What if I go back to my world, and the me of this world disappears?”

I would have to throw away everything I’ve accumulated in the job world in order to return to the skill world.

Just as I in the skill world have a sincere desire to return to my original world, I in the job world have more than enough circumstances that make it impossible for me to disappear from this world.

“…Stop it, stop it. Now is not the time to think about it.”

I shook my head, shaking off the emotions that were rising in me.

This is not the time to think about the things that make me feel weak in front of the floor boss.

That’s true, but by immersing myself in the crisis at hand, I’m only avoiding the conflict I’ll eventually have to face―I can’t argue with that.

“Well, let’s go.”

Time is precious.

I’m on a business trip, which is unbecoming of a high school student.

I’m here on a secret from Honoka-chan and my parents.

Of course, there is no way I can stay out overnight.

Why haven’t I told anyone?

Of course, I don’t want to cause unnecessary worry.

If someone close to me suddenly said, “I’m going to do an S-rank dungeon solo,” I would stop them, even if I had to use force.

To put it bluntly, it would be suicide.

In fact, it is said that many people enter dungeons with the intention of committing suicide.

Some of those who would have died by hanging, jumping, or diving before the dungeons are now choosing the dungeons as a means of suicide.

It is true that suicide by other means carries the risk of failure, but a monster will surely kill you.

Government statistics also show that while the number of confirmed suicides is decreasing, the number of disappearances is increasing.

However, it cannot be said that the increase in the number of missing persons is directly proportional to the number of suicides.

There was a group of evil college student explorers who tried to trick Honoka-chan before, wasn’t there?

The victims of such dungeon crimes are also among the missing.

Dungeons take people and do not give them back.

Therefore, people who have lost loved ones to dungeon suicides or dungeon crimes find it difficult to come to terms with their feelings.

Some people take advantage of such people by claiming that those who have been swallowed by dungeons live in the world beyond the dungeon.

“Beyond the dungeon, huh…?”

In fact, Haruka-san and Clovis came from the other world “beyond” the dungeon.

Of course, those who make pseudo-spiritual claims can’t possibly know that.

“If I go back to my original world, then this world’s me too…”

…Damn it. Don’t drag this out.

I shook my head strongly and then pushed hard on the Kannon door of the floor boss room.

The door opened with a heavy thud.

“It’s dark…?”

Behind the door, it was dark enough that I couldn’t see through it with my naked eye, if not completely dark.

Inside a dungeon, the brightness is always constant.

The brightness varies from dungeon to dungeon, but I never found a dungeon that was so dark that it required a separate light.

This post-collapse Okutama Lake dungeon is one of the darkest dungeons.

On the other hand, the Kururi Castle dungeon I conquered in the skill world was brightly lit.

The fact that the light level in the dungeon is kept constant when there should be no light source has been a big mystery since the dungeon was introduced.

“There’s something… there.”

An intense spiritual energy in the darkness caused goose bumps to appear on my arms.

Based on my past experience, it was probably an opponent at a higher level than me.

I have never felt such pressure against a monster before, although not as much as I felt from Kudave.

Should I cast a light or not?

I wondered for a moment,

“Light.”

I used light magic, which I don’t often have the chance to use, to create several balls of light.

I let the floating balls of light fan out toward the back of the boss’s room.

I wondered if the lights would stimulate the monsters. But now it was too late.

If I were to fight a monster that was hiding in the dark, it would be better for me to have a clear view of the room.

As long as it was a floor boss, there was no way to get past it.

In the light of the ball of light, there was a huge shadow floating in the air.

Shadow is not a metaphor.

Literally, something blackened came out of the light.

Each of the balls of light I shot out cast a long shadow on what looked like a bundle of blackened tentacles.

Stripes of light and shadow appear on the walls of the rather large boss room.

The scene is reminiscent of the inside of an iron grid.

It is probably about the same size as the… gigant rock golem.

Unlike that one, which has a clear outline, the floor boss in front of me appears to be an undulating, irregularly shaped entity.

Along the way, I saw a monster that looked very similar to this one, although it was of a different size.

“Is it… Roper?”

I pointed out my usurper’s appraisal skill at Roper?

Status────────────────────

Shadow Roper (Floor Boss)

Multiheaded Serpent S

Level 10,200

HP 2,070,600/2,070,600

MP 1,428,000/1,428,000

STR 204.000

INT 71.400

VIT 204.000

MND 214.200

DEX 122.400

AGI 112.200

LCK 40.800

Experience gained upon defeat: 0

Mana coins gained upon defeat (converted to yen) 53,040,000

Drop Item: Miracle Drop, Magic Key to the second floor of the Okutama Lake Dungeon after the Collapse, Magic Sword, Shadow Slayer

──────────────────────

“Over level 10,000…!”

Also,

“Not the normal boss, but the secret boss? “

I thought to myself as I held my sword in front of me,

“PUSHIIIIIIIIIIIIIII…!!!”

The shadows that stretched across the boss’s room moved as if they were alive.