Chapter 57

This story is a work of fiction.

The characters, organizations, and names are all fictional and have no connection to any real entities.

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055＿7th Floor Boss Loop

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On the 63rd day of reincarnation, it's the 7th floor boss loop.

Bers has become an adventurer, and Solidia has become a necromancer, so both are at level 1. I've arranged everyone to hunt safely, considering that.

Gundalban will take on the hostility, so attacks on the two of them are rare, but not impossible.

"How's the bow?"

I check Bers, who is wearing leather armor.

"The accuracy is still low, but it's manageable."

Bers' weapon is a bow. It's not like he can hit all 100 shots in a day or two. As long as he doesn't hit his allies, it's fine.

It's not that I changed Bers' weapon from a sword to a bow because he was too close to the monsters.

It seems that the adventurer job can't use swords. Swords feel heavy, so he tried various weapons like spears and axes. It turned out that whips, bows, and daggers felt right.

While an adventurer with a whip sounds like a movie protagonist, Bers didn't choose the whip. He has a dagger on his belt and is set to attack with a bow. It's good that we don't have any archers in our group.

Of course, I'm paying for the arrows. Even if arrows are expensive, 100 stone-tipped arrows cost 6,000 grils, 100 iron-tipped arrows cost 15,000 grils, and 10 arrows with sharp front teeth from gray rats, which are rare drops, cost 6,000 grils. The sharp front teeth arrows are a bit expensive, but it's not a significant amount. I bought 100 stone-tipped arrows, 200 iron-tipped arrows, and 20 sharp front teeth arrows.

Considering the amount of money we can get from the items obtained from the 7th floor boss, the Light Lizard, the cost of the arrows is easily covered.

"Solidia, are you ready?"

"Whenever you are."

I'm paying for Solidia's catalyst as well. As the leader, I provide the weapons and armor for my subordinates. A catalyst is as important as a weapon for a sorcerer.

"This time, we have four people with different jobs, so I'm counting on you, Gundalban."

"Leave it to me."

"Alright, let's go."

Jojok and Bers open the door to the boss room, and everyone goes in.

Today, my main job is a swordsman, and my sub-job is a hero of the two-handed sword. The swordsman job is open, so there's no problem with leveling it up, and the hero of the two-handed sword has the skill Command. Command boosts the abilities of Gundalban and others by 20%, which is perfect for this situation with two level 1s.

"I summon."

Solidia takes out her catalyst from her pouch.

Solidia is now a necromancer at level 1, so she can only summon skeletons. The catalyst is a small skeleton model that fits in the palm of her hand. It's surprising that it doesn't break easily.

"Summon, Skeleton."

She drops the catalyst on the floor, and it shatters with a "clink." Light particles form a magic circle on the floor. It's really cool.

A skeleton's head appears from the center of the magic circle, rises gradually, and the magic circle disappears when the entire body is revealed.

The skeleton is about 180 cm tall and holds a club about 80 cm long in its right hand. The club seems to be standard equipment.

"Nice, I wish I could be a necromancer too."

"You're being persistent, Master. Focus on the battle now."

"Okay."

I was scolded by Annelise. She gives me honest feedback, which is helpful.

With Annelise's words, I focus and take out my mithril two-handed sword from the item box.

"Bers, start with your bow and Annelise's magic."

Following my instructions, Bers nocks a stone-tipped arrow, draws his bow, and aims. His arm is trembling a bit. I shouldn't laugh, but I almost burst out.

The arrow flies towards the Light Lizard, which is not moving in the middle of the boss room. The arrow, which follows a curved path, hits the Light Lizard's rear but bounces off without piercing it. That's what you'd expect from a level 1 ATK value.

"Firestorm."

Immediately after the arrow bounces off, Annelise casts her spell. The Light Lizard's massive body is enveloped in a whirlwind of flames.

The Light Lizard twists in discomfort and glares at Annelise with angry eyes.

The Light Lizard charges. Gundalban rushes forward.

"Anger Lock."

There's a dull thud. The steel shield that absorbed the Light Lizard's charge seems to be groaning.

I dash and circle around to the side of the Light Lizard, slashing it. Jojok, the swordmaster, is also slashing from the opposite side. He's a worthy swordmaster.

A spear extends from Jojok's side. It's Lin. Her figure was completely hidden by the large Jojok.

Rosalina attacks from the rear, avoiding the tail. I'm impressed that she doesn't miss.

Next to her, the skeleton is swinging its club at the Light Lizard, but it deals no damage. But that's fine. If the skeleton participates in the attack, Solidia will gain experience points. The experience points are distributed evenly, so it's enough to attack once.

Rose wraps thorny vines around the Light Lizard's body. This attack not only slows its movement but also gradually reduces its HP. It's a troublesome attack, but it's good to have it on our side.

Our attacks are effectively reducing the Light Lizard's HP.

"Alright, now!"

I give the order for skill attacks based on the HP reduction.

"Skill - One Point Break! Double Slash!"

I activate One Point Break, which nullifies the enemy's DEF value and defense skills, and deliver a Double Slash. The Light Lizard's HP drops significantly.

"Rush!"

Rosalina's attack speed triples, and the Light Lizard's HP is further reduced.

"Power Attack!"

Gundalban's Power Attack explodes.

"Triple Slash!"

Jojok, the swordmaster, uses his skill attack.

"Lightning Lance!"

Lin, the spear saint, uses her skill attack.

"Booster! Mana Slash!"

Annelise's magic.

With these attacks, the Light Lizard's HP drops to zero and it disappears.

"Everyone, are you hurt?"

"No."

"No, sir."

"No, ma'am."

"No, it's fine."

The close combatants answer immediately.

Bers and Solidia weren't attacked, and Breas was safely stored in the item box, so no one except Gundalban should have been attacked.

I check the level 1 duo with detailed appraisal. Oh, they've leveled up. That's good.

"Alright, let's keep this momentum going."

By looping the Light Lizard, not only the two of them but also the rest of us level up.

Bers, now an adventurer at level 25, still has a low accuracy with his bow, but his power has definitely increased. His attack power isn't very high, but the arrows started piercing the Light Lizard halfway through. Before, they wouldn't damage us, but now they do, so we need to improve our accuracy. Training is the only way.

Also, adventurers learn the item box skill at level 5. It's a huge help to have more people who can carry items besides me.

Solidia, now a necromancer at level 25, has learned not only bone summoning (skeleton summoning) but also corpse summoning (ghoul summoning) and spirit summoning (ghost summoning).

After the boss battle, she takes a short break to create catalysts and can now summon ghouls and ghosts.

When her bone summoning proficiency reaches (low), she can summon skeleton soldiers equipped with swords in addition to skeleton warriors with clubs. When it reaches (medium), she can summon skeleton knights, which deal damage to the Light Lizard.

As Solidia's level increases, the level of the summoned minions also increases, so the MP consumption is quite high each time she summons them.

"After one more Light Lizard, we'll call it a day. This is the last one, so let's not let our guard down."

This is the 20th Light Lizard battle of the day, with a short break in between when another party entered the boss room. Each battle takes less than 10 minutes, but with breaks, it should be a good amount of time.

If we had a clock, we could tell the time, but we don't. In this world, "morning" refers to the early, dim time just after sunrise, "noon" is when the sun is high, and "night" is when the sun sets. They only have a basic sense of time.

However, our internal clocks seem to be quite accurate. Annelise suggests we wrap up, and every time we leave the dungeon, it's evening. Is this only true for Annelise?

The final battle of the 7th floor boss loop.

As usual, the double doors close behind us as we enter the boss room. Particles of light rise from the center of the room, and the boss appears.

"Huh? What's that?"

The boss that appeared was completely black.

"Dark Lizard...?"

I confirmed with detailed appraisal, and that was its species name.

While the Light Lizard was level 35, this Dark Lizard is level 37. It seems to be a rare and stronger boss monster than the Light Lizard.

"Dark Lizard Level 37. It has physical and magical resistance. Its breath not only corrodes weapons and armor but also human bodies."

"What a troublesome monster."

Its defense is impenetrable, and its attacks are nasty. It's a boss monster that can make explorers cry.

On our side, Bers and Solidia are level 25, I'm a swordsman at level 31 and a reincarnated hero at level 33, and the rest are all level 35. With skillful use of skills, we should be able to defeat it, though it will be tough.

"Summon, Skeleton Knight."

Three skeleton knights appear from three magic circles. Despite being skeletons, they wear armor and carry shields. With a bit more level, they would be capable tanks. Moreover, as long as there are catalysts and MP, you can summon as many as you want. They are really convenient.

"But we will win!"

"Agreed!"

"Agreed, sir!"

"Agreed, ma'am!"

"Victory for Master!"

The battle begins with Bers' bow and Annelise's magic. We run to our respective positions. We've done this many times, so there's no chance of making a mistake.

"Rose, I count on you."

She flies around me, and thorny vines wrap around the Dark Lizard's body.

The Dark Lizard struggles, but the three skeleton knights hold it back. The sound of bones creaking is quite unpleasant.

We naturally move and attack the Dark Lizard. My position is to the left of Gundalban. I'm in this position for a reason.

"Here it comes, the breath attack."

—Item Box!

This is the best position to see the breath attack.

The Dark Lizard's breath is being absorbed into the empty space in front of me.

Gundalban's Anger Lock has the enemy's hostility firmly fixed, so using the Item Box is easy.

If everyone fulfills their roles, the result will follow naturally.

The Dark Lizard is tough, but as long as we can block the breath attack, it's not a problem. It will take time, but not so much that we lose focus.

The 7th floor boss loop ends with the Dark Lizard.

The income from this loop is as follows:

＜Light Lizard＞

- Light E-Rank Magic Stone. Guild exchange rate: 100,000 grils. 13 stones: 1,300,000 grils.

- Light Lance. Guild exchange rate: 200,000 grils. 10 lances: 2,000,000 grils.

- Light Treasure Magic Stone. Guild exchange rate: 700,000 grils. 4 stones: 2,800,000 grils.

- Total exchange rate: 6,100,000 grils.

The Dark Lizard dropped a rare Dark D-Rank Magic Stone, according to Annelise, so I haven't sold it yet. It might be useful for something, and I can always sell it later, so it's stored in the item box.

But the boss loop is a huge profit. I've earned half the annual salary of a baron. Even after paying danger allowances to Gundalban and the others, a large sum of money will go into my pocket.

I can't stop. Hehehe.

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