Worthless Skill Escape (WN)

Chapter 43

Sponsored chapter by Patreon, and you may also want to check our new Patreon tier since you can now choose a tier for specific novels, so please go check it out, and also new Ko-Fi offer here~

Enjoy~

TL: ALT

Chapter 43 – Rebellion and Flood

The people who collapsed in front of the boss’s room were members of the explorer guild Rakan.

The group was supposed to have started their exploration with seven six-person parties, but the number of soldiers that could be confirmed was less than 30.

In addition, Junko Tozaki and several men and women in suits stood guard over the soldiers.

“You, you, and you.”

Junko pointed at the men and women soldiers who stood upright with blue faces.

“Come here. I’ll absorb your level.”

Unable to resist the condescending words, the three men and women staggered forward.

Both the soldiers and the suit-wearers stared at Junko Tozaki’s Level Drain with lifeless expressions.

“Not enough at all. You and, yes, you too…”

“I-I beg your pardon!”

A woman in a suit interrupts Junko, who is about to nominate more people.

“W-we have a boss battle coming up.”

“I see. And?”

“The dungeon bosses don’t give experience. Even if the level is lowered beforehand, it will not result in a level increase.”

“You will gain more SP by making up the level difference.”

“Only if you win.”

“You’re so annoying. Dungeon bosses have level raises, don’t they? The boss level is lowered to keep up with your level, right?”

“T-the boss level has a lower limit. Even if you lower the level to 1, it doesn’t mean that the boss level will be 1… Hiii!”

“You think I don’t know that? Then fine. Give me your level.”

“I-if you want to make me the last one, then…”

The woman in the suit shuddered and strained her voice.

Junko’s gaze lowered the temperature.

The woman in the suit knew.

She knows that the reason Junko is here absorbing levels from the soldiers is to get rid of the “useless” soldiers in the boss’s room.

“You are so impudent, those eyes. You look like that woman―Serika Akenojo.”

“Please, please, please!”

The woman gets down on her knees with her hands on the floor of the dungeon.

Junko Tozaki stomps on her head.

She stomps with her heel, twisting it as hard as she can.

“U-ugh…”

Blood pours from the woman’s forehead where the heel hits, and she lets out a scream of pain.

The soldiers and the others are no longer interested in this situation.

They seem to have already lost all awareness of the situation, sitting down and staring blankly at the floor of the dungeon.

One of the suit-wearers tries to step forward, clenching his fist.

The other suit-wearers right next to him hastily stopped him.

Then, one of the soldiers who had been peering into the boss’s room called out.

It was a familiar face.

I remembered him from that one scene.

TAJIMA―or should I say, Tajima.

He was the guy who was demoted from regional supervisor to soldier and returned to level 1.

Now, he wears a sweatshirt and has a shaved head.

“O-Ojou-sama!”

“What is it?”

“Something is wrong with the boss!”

“What do you mean? What exactly is wrong?”

“T-that’s… hard to say. Can you look at it directly?”

“Heh. Oh, so a soldier is going to order me to do something?”

“I-I know it’s rude! But there are also floods in the Shinjuku Station Underground Dungeon! There is a possibility that something unknown is going on…!”

“Hmm?”

“If you report this to the Association, it will bring fame to Ojou-sama!”

“It can’t be helped. If you insist… you, you’re in my way.”

“Aagh!”

The woman is kicked away as if it were a joke, screaming and rolling over.

From the force of the kick, Junko Tozaki is now suppressing her status as an explorer.

If she had kicked the woman away with level 2874 Attack Power (it should be a little higher now), the woman would not have survived.

This means that she is deliberately saving her power to make the woman suffer.

“Huh. So, what is it?”

“T-this way, please.”

Tajima stepped aside from the door of the boss’ room that was about to open and let Junko look inside.

“Seems like a normal boss room, doesn’t it?”

“Please use your Simple Appraisal to see the boss.”

“Tch, you’re ordering me…! Well, okay. Simple…”

At that moment, Junko’s attention turned to the Simple Appraisal.

Tajima, who had gone behind Junko’s back, kicked her back as hard as he could.

“Wha, kyaaaaa!?”

Junko was kicked and fell into the boss’s room, which was about to open――

“Now! Help me!”

Tajima called to the suit-wearers as he pushed the door of the boss’s room.

The door was pushed to the back of the room.

Tajima stuck his broadsword into the door handle like a bolt.

“Y-you…!”

“It’s okay! Now’s our chance!”

“B-but with all this…”

“――Hey, what are you doing? Open up! I’ll kill you!”

From behind the door comes Junko’s voice and a banging on the door.

“It’s only for a few moments! We just have to hold the door for a little while! That’s all it takes for the boss to kill the bitch!”

“B-but…”

“That won’t get us a red name! We didn’t kill her personally!”

“I-I’ll do it…!”

A woman in a suit (different from the one on the ground earlier) wrapped a steel whip in her hand around the door handle.

She pulled the whip back with all her might to counter Junko’s power on the other side of the door.

“Think about it! If that woman has the right level-appropriate ability, she should be able to defeat a B-rank dungeon boss who just got the same level with a level increase, solo, with plenty of time to spare!”

“T-That’s… true, but.”

“All she had to do was make good use of the level we gave her and beat the boss! We’re not asking for anything unreasonable! We’re just asking for the obvious! Don’t you agree?”

“Kuh… we have to do it!”

The man in the suit, who had been hesitating, picked up the handle as well.

“D-don’t do it! What’s the point!”

The woman in the suit who had been on her knees earlier protested.

“Why are you defending her? Aren’t you disappointed that you were forced to do such a thing?”

“I…! I just want her to stop taking people’s lives! If we ask in good faith, I’m sure Ojou-sama will understand! If not now, maybe someday…!”

“One day? When will that be? How many times will I be returned to level 1 before then? How many more times will I have to dive under the line of death? I’ll be the one killed before that arrogant Ojou-sama changes her mind!”

“――Open the door, quickly! You don’t think you can get away with this, do you? If I tell my father about this, he’ll… no, no, don’t, don’t come…!”

On the other side of the door, Junko seems to have been spotted by the boss.

The boss’ level has been boosted with Junko Tozaki’s level.

Since she seems to have absorbed even more levels since she was on the surface, Junko Tozaki’s current level is probably more than 2900――

The threat is not only the extraordinary skill value of level 2900.

Dungeon bosses sometimes learn new skills as their levels increase.

At level 2900, it is not surprising that it possesses unknown and powerful skills.

“Hey, suck it up, you bitch! You’re just a woman who took the chairman’s place by flattering him, and now you’re acting all bossy! If you’re so great, why don’t you take down the boss all by yourself!”

“Open up! Open the door! Hurry――”

“I will not! Didn’t the chairman who adopted you say that? ‘Nothing is impossible if you work with gratitude and sincerity.'”

“I don’t know anything about that! Open it quickly! Hurry, hurry…!”

Bang, bang, bang! The door was violently banged.

Then, the sound of thunder exploded on the other side of the door.

Junko Tozaki must have tried to break through the door with her magic.

However, there is no way that a door used to seal a dungeon boss would be that weak.

Like the walls and floors of a dungeon, it is said to be impossible to break.

However, if you work with sincerity and gratitude, you might be able to destroy it.

“N-no! I don’t want to die! Open the door! Please open the door! Please forgive me! I’m sorry for everything I’ve done…!”

“Have you ever forgiven someone who said that to you?”

“I-I’m sorry! I will be better from now on! I’ll do everything! Open the door!”

“I don’t want you to be better! I just want you to die! If you want to do anything, just die!”

“Shit, shit, shit! You remember that, you people! I’m going to kill you! I’ll fucking kill you!”

I guessed that it was impossible to make them open the door, and the presence behind the door turned toward the boss monster.

…I lurked a short distance away, watching the scene.

“I never thought it would come to this.”

I only prepared myself in case we had to fight, but I never thought they would have destroyed themselves without me doing anything…

Let me tell you in one word how I feel.

It’s a sad sight.

Seriously, that’s all I have to say.

“What am I supposed to do now that I’ve been shown this?”

Break into the boss’s room and rescue Junko Tozaki?

No way!

The Enemy Search light spot shows, at least roughly, that Junko Tozaki is fighting the boss.

She’s not fighting well, to say the least.

All I know about the boss from the Enemy Search sign is that it seems to be a Hobbit-type.

Apparently, the Hobbit-type monsters encountered so far have not been promoted directly to bosses.

Junko Tozaki must have realized that she had no chance,

“――Someone! I know you’re there! Somebody, help me! Open the door!”

Oh, that’s a nice scream! It’s soothing!

…Is that a little too insidious?

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel guilty.

Still, I have surprisingly little desire to help.

“…I guess I’ll just have to give up on the boss for today.”

I wonder what will happen to the level of the boss if the previous challenger loses?

If I enter, will the level drop to the lower limit to match mine?

If there is a time lag in the level adjustment, it would be better not to challenge today.

I don’t even think I can win at my current level, but I won’t bother to challenge a level 2900+ boss.

And the number of consecutive Hobbit-type defeats should continue as long as I don’t defeat any other monsters.

Then, I guess I should go out through the escape portal of this dungeon.

According to Haitani-san, this dungeon only has three floors, so there is an escape portal in front of the boss room.

I quietly looked in front of the boss’s room,

“There it is. That’s it.”

There is a large space in front of the boss room.

There is a statue of an ancient goddess there, and it is called “Sanctuary” by the explorers.

This is the reason why no monsters seem to attack the place, even though all the Rakan explorers are gathered there.

The statue of the goddess bears no resemblance to the god I met.

The scene in front of the boss’s room was, as usual, a scene of screaming.

Junko Tozaki is screaming and begging, and Tajima and the others are cursing her through the door.

Junko can’t stay like that forever, so she leaves the door from time to time to escape from the boss.

Inside the boss’s room, a blue light spot and a red light spot are playing tag.

Well, I don’t do or say anything.

I can pretend that I haven’t seen anything.

Oh no, Serika and the others know that I’m diving here today.

I’ll have to apologize to Serika.

The white portal for escape is near the statue of the goddess.

Around it is a group of white-faced soldiers.

If I go with Stealth and Covert, I won’t be discovered.

If they see me, I can use my Agility to quickly jump into the portal.

I would at least report that Rakan’s party was in distress deep in the dungeon out of a warrior’s compassion.

I immediately stepped into the portal――

“Hmm?

The portal, like a white-water mirror, suddenly shattered in mid-air.

No one seemed to have noticed because of the commotion.

I looked at the Mini Map and saw that the red light spot had just “crushed” the blue light spot.

By the way, Haruka-san told me about the origin of the dungeon.

“The dungeon is an ant-lion prison created by a crushed soul.”

“The souls of explorers who die in the dungeon are absorbed into the dungeon, increasing the gravity of the dungeon.”

“When this accumulates to a certain degree, the dungeon rises in rank, and with it comes flooding.”

In addition, Serika told me at noon that… escape portals disappear from dungeons during floods.

“No way…”

‘Warning: a dungeon flood has occurred in the B-rank Hikarigaoka Park Dungeon.’