Chapter 45

The boss in front of me is Big Matango.

This boss is on the 10th floor. It's a large mushroom monster, about 7 meters tall.

It's huge.

Just huge. ... And it's difficult to approach because it releases spores from its purple cap, which clearly indicates it's a poisonous mushroom.

The first attack will be a magic attack from Lord Raz while maintaining distance. It seems he's good at lightning magic, and the tall Big Matango is an easy target on the flat ground around it.

When Big Matango notices us, Fol will attack from the side. Fol uses throwing weapons that are like shurikens or boomerangs. They fly in straight lines or curves, making their trajectory unpredictable.

Meanwhile, I had already returned the bow to my brother, so he is also attacking from the opposite side of Fol with his bow. However, unlike a sword, the bow doesn't have as much attack power. It seems that Leonis and Fol noticed my brother's condition and checked on him.

During this time, I cast the holy magic, Status Resistance (Resist), on Naga and Leonis. The battle strategy is for Naga and Leonis to hold Big Matango with their shields while we whittle it down with ranged attacks.

Since Big Matango is slow, Leonis and the others can stop it before it reaches us, making the battle smooth.

"Naga, back off. The spores are coming!"

The moment Matango starts to tremble, Leonis gives the order, and the two of them take a step back.

These spores have effects like paralysis, poison, confusion, and sleep, so it's best not to inhale them. However, if we keep our distance, we'll give Matango the freedom to move, and there's a possibility that the spores will come towards us, the rear guard.

"Wind (Wind)!"

I use the wind magic, Wind, to blow away the spores. I had planned this strategy from the moment I heard that Matango would release spores: blow them away in a direction where no one is. The spores, being light, were carried away by the wind and flew to the back.

It doesn't seem like Matango will release more spores.

"Good job! Get away from there, Crane!"

At Leonis' words, I look around.

Perhaps because I blew away the spores, Matango is facing my direction and is about to charge.

"Did I anger it!?"

"Well, it's normal to get angry, right?"

I can't involve Lord Raz, who is nearby, so I quickly run to the side where my brother and Leonis are. The rough positioning is with Matango at the center, Lord Raz at the 6 o'clock position, and my brother and the others at around the 2 o'clock position.

Yeah. It's facing my direction, so I'm clearly the target.

"Come this way!"

Leonis was heading to stand between me and Matango, so I run behind him.

"Iron Wall (Iron Wall)"

As Matango charges, Leonis uses a skill, and Matango stops in its tracks. Even though Matango tries to move forward, Leonis doesn't budge, and the charge's force is wasted, causing it to fall down.

"All-out attack! Let's go!!"

"Okay!"

Following Leonis' command, my brother, Naga, and Fol attack from the sides and rear. Somehow, both my brother and Fol have switched to melee weapons... they're fast.

"God's Thunder (Indignation)!"

"Flame Whirl (Flare Edge)"

Lord Raz's lightning magic goes off with a big boom, and at the same time, he wraps Matango in a whirl of flames, dealing continuous damage.

"UGOoooo!"

After Matango gets back up, it occasionally attacks from a distance, and when the Status Resistance (Resist) wears off, I recast it. The basic strategy is for the tank to hold Matango while we attack from the sides.

When Matango releases spores, my brother actively uses Wind (Wind) to clear them from the second time onward. He realized that accumulating hate was not good, so he decided that I or Lord Raz should not clear the spores.

Since my brother is fast enough to dodge and Leonis can stop the charge, there is no damage. After the second time, Matango didn't fall down, so it didn't result in major damage.

I think this is the first time my brother is using magic in battle... but both he and Fol can use magic due to their training. Although their INT is low, so the damage is minimal, they can still create wind. Naga can probably do it too, but he's not fast enough, so it's my brother's job.

The battle proceeds smoothly as we whittle down Matango's HP. When we've reduced it by half, subordinates... small Matangos are summoned. Even though they're small, they're about 80 cm tall, about half our height. Moreover, the color of their mushroom caps is different... purple, yellow, blue, red... probably indicating different status effects. Poison, paralysis, sleep, and burn, I guess.

"Leave it to me."

"We will handle them."

My brother and Fol seem to be taking on the subordinates.

They attack the small Matangos from a distance to separate them from Big Matango.

They don't seem to be in any trouble, but just in case, I try to cast a spell to increase status resistance, but then Big Matango moves.

"Damn, it's trying to heal... Can you do it, Naga?"

"Sure!"

"I'll cast magic, so back off!"

Big Matango, despite being a mushroom, is trying to stick something like roots or tentacles into the ground. My brother and Fol are trying to cut the tentacles, but I judge that it's too late, so I call out to them and cast a spell.

"Rock Spikes (Rock Spikes)!"

I make rock spikes appear around Matango, 3 meters in diameter, to prevent the tentacles from touching the ground.

The rock spikes pierce the tentacles, which recoil. The tentacles can't touch the ground because of the spikes, and Big Matango is hitting them, causing more damage.

"Good job, let's go. Wind Scythe (Wind Scythe Size)"

Lord Raz's wind magic activates, and several scythe-like winds cut through the tentacles. Matango, unable to heal, loses its tentacles and looks at us with a somewhat sad expression.

Meanwhile, my brother and Fol had easily defeated the subordinates...

In the end, we defeated the boss in a straightforward manner. It was surprisingly easy.

Since most of the movements were as expected, we were able to prepare accordingly. It probably wouldn't have been this easy on the first try.

Level up. I only went up one level, but I learned Sleep Resistance and Confusion Resistance. With the level-ups from the previous and this time, my magic and abilities have improved significantly, which is great.

My brother also learned Sleep Resistance and Confusion Resistance. I wonder if the spores Matango released had sleep and confusion effects? We didn't receive the spore attack, but it's lucky we learned these resistances.

Naga learned Great Sword Technique. It seems he learned it because his sword skill reached level 5. It might be a derivative of sword skills... my brother's sword technique might also be learned when his sword skill reaches level 5... I want to aim to develop abilities up to level 5.

"Hmm?"

Reflecting on the battle, I realized... we hardly used any healing magic?

I did cast Resist (Status Resistance) on Naga and Leonis, but not on Fol or my brother, who were switching to ranged attacks... and no one ended up with status effects.

The two tanks didn't take significant damage, so we only needed to heal after the battle. I realized that my role was almost unnecessary.

"Are you okay?"

"Naga, good work... no injuries, right?"

"Yeah... Leonis was mostly doing the tanking."

Huh?

Indeed, Leonis was taking the big attacks, but Naga was also tanking quite a bit. He was defending well, so there was no damage. This time, Leonis was mostly supporting me, so I couldn't see Naga's condition clearly.

Naga's HP and defense are over 1000, so it's not much damage?

That's strange, my HP is only 500, and my defense is 160... with almost no level difference, our stats are quite different...

I felt a gaze and turned my head to see Fol in my line of sight.

He was looking at me and smiled when our eyes met.

"What's up?"

"Nothing."

His gaze, which seemed to be observing me, was not particularly friendly.

Well, my brother is also on guard... I can only hope that things don't get weird with Lord Raz.

"Hey, Crane, Naga, let's open the treasure chest."

"Okay, I'm coming!"

Responding to my brother's call, I head to where the boss Matango was, and there was a treasure chest.

It seems Matango dropped it. Bosses sometimes drop treasure chests, but not always.

The contents are random. It could be equipment or boss materials. Sometimes it's just a regular potion, and sometimes it's an artifact.

This time, the contents were Matango's Root.

A rare material that can be used for alchemy and potion-making. It looks like the dried tentacles Matango released during the battle. Incidentally, the tentacles during the battle had already disappeared and couldn't be used as materials.

We also disassembled Matango and obtained other materials like Matango's Spores and Matango's Body. According to Leonis, he wants Matango's Root as a gift for his master. We hadn't decided on the distribution of the obtained items, but since it's a gift for the master, no one would complain.

I glance at Fol, who says, "I'm also grateful." Apparently, the master is the strongest in that town? Even the nobles like Lord Raz seem to respect him.

We agreed that Leonis would give the root to his master. As for the items I collected, I will use them, but my brother, Naga, and Leonis plan to give them to the master.

Since we are grateful to the master, I should give them too... but this time, I want to keep the materials for myself. Valuable items like this will be given to the master by Leonis, so I hope he understands.