Chapter 97

"Today is particularly lively, isn't it?"

With a mix of joy and a sigh, I nod in agreement to Rin-chan's words. We had arrived in Feas early in the morning, yet the gate, which was usually crowded, was now bustling with twice the usual number of people, even though it was just past six.

It was the eighth day of the event. Perhaps we should say that this dungeon event had finally entered the final stretch, or that it had reached its climax. The three-day sprint of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday had the town more lively than ever.

Originally, the event schedule, which started on a Friday and ended on a Thursday, was unreasonable, according to Rin-chan. It cut off a significant portion of the player base, who were mostly working adults and students. As a result, the event period was extended by three days, which could be considered a grace period for those of us who were aiming for the rankings and repeatedly clearing the dungeon. Conversely, for players who were enjoying the game, this could be seen as the fever time.

By the way, the announcement came on the third day at noon, which was the day I played with Saku. People who had plans for the weekend might have been disappointed, but since the announcement was made before the week began, I think the timing was just barely safe from the management's perspective.

In any case, this is the peak of the star dust fragment collection. I need to put in my best effort today as well.

"Is Nana okay?"

"Yeah. I felt refreshed after logging in."

I don't remember much, but apparently, I was sleeping on the balcony this morning. Was I sleepwalking? I thought, but I remember going out to the balcony because I wanted to feel the night breeze. I must have fallen asleep because the wind felt good. I've even fallen asleep on a park bench and found myself in the middle of the night, so it's not that unusual.

Still, I was a bit dazed in the morning, and Rin-chan seemed a little worried.

'Is something wrong?'

'If you're not feeling well, go back to bed.'

"Um, I fell asleep on the balcony."

'You'll catch a cold.'

'The sick theory.'

'It's not the garden.'

'Rinne House has a wide balcony.'

'There might be a pool on the balcony.'

"Haha, I don't think it's as big as everyone imagines."

At first, Rin-chan was the only one doing the live stream, but as we got more comfortable, I started joining in. It seems there's a demand for my perspective. While the number of viewers is only a quarter of Rin-chan's, there are still quite a few people who watch my stream. I was too excited at the start of the event to do a proper stream, but now that I've calmed down, I can finally do it.

"From today, the difficulty might go up a notch, right?"

"Yeah. We still don't really understand the conditions for the difficulty to increase."

Since the addition of the Monster House, there hasn't been a noticeable increase in difficulty this week. A few instant-kill traps were added, but they were so obvious that getting caught in them would be foolish.

However, the number of Monster Houses has increased significantly. There are at least two more rooms per lap, and the frequency has definitely gone up. Even small rooms can yield a decent amount of loot, so I've been clearing them actively, but I haven't dropped any rare skills since the first large room.

The rare skill "Embrace of the Songstress" is quite special. It has a very specific activation condition, but its effect is powerful enough to live up to its name as a rare skill. Unlike skills like "Famished Wolf," which have drawbacks, this one has a special activation condition. I haven't been able to activate it yet, but some players might end up completely neglecting this skill. I have a skill that could potentially activate it, but if it does, it would likely be in a battle with a monster like Aria.

In any case, the Star Dust Labyrinth remained quiet until the seventh day of the original event schedule. It's natural to think that something will happen from today, and both Rin-chan and I have been a bit more focused lately.

"Shall we go?"

"Yeah. Let's do our best today."

After making eye contact with Rin-chan, we passed through the gate.

The warp zone, or whatever you want to call the mysterious space beyond the gate, is almost instantaneous, but for a moment, the space itself seemed to waver.

"Kyaa!"

"Rin-chan!"

I grabbed Rin-chan's arm and held her tight as we were tossed around in the wobbling space. We couldn't even scream, and it felt like we were in a zero-gravity environment, being tossed around in an unstable world. After a moment of floating, we were thrown out of the space, with Rin-chan landing on top of me.

☆

"…Huh?"

What I saw was the ceiling of the dungeon. And an overwhelming number of monsters, as well as a room that was far too large. I almost unconsciously drew Kage-nawashi and began to assess the movements of the monsters, protecting Rin-chan. We were supposed to enter the dungeon through a safe room, but we were dropped directly into the dungeon. Surrounding us were more than a hundred monsters, so many that it was ridiculous to count. In other words, we had been dropped into the worst trap floor in a roguelike game.

In other words, the entire floor was a Panic Floor of the Monster House.

"Electro Barrier!"

Rin-chan must have understood the situation instantly, as the first spell she cast was the high-level defensive spell "Electro Barrier," which has a lightning attribute. We didn't need to make eye contact. Rin-chan and I knew exactly what we needed to do.

"Devour the hunger, fangs of the Wolf King!"

I needed maximum firepower from the start. As I activated "Famished Wolf," I threw Kage-nawashi at the Metal Bear in front of me with all my might. After confirming that it had shattered the Metal Bear's brain with a squish, I used the now-dead body as a stepping stone to jump up. In mid-air, I instantly changed my equipment, and with four throwing knives in each hand, I aimed at the troublesome monsters I had identified earlier and threw them. They hit. Knowing they would hit, I didn't have time to watch the results. I crushed a Kirabit underfoot and caught Kage-nawashi, which had fallen to the ground after the corpse disappeared.

"Oryah!"

I swung Kage-nawashi up, sending a Puchi Golem flying. The goal was to blow it away, not to kill it. This was essentially a Puchi Golem cannon, aimed at the monsters hiding in the back of the crowd.

At first glance, I saw eight Hobgoblin Archers. They are the most troublesome monsters in the Monster House. Unless you blind them or cut off their fingers, you have to constantly deal with the fear of being sniped. I had blinded four of them with my earlier throws, and two of them had a clear line of sight to Rin-chan. One of them should have been taken out by the Puchi Golem cannon. The other one was the closest, so I could go and kill it normally. The other two were far back, so they wouldn't be a problem for a while. I continued to move, clearing out three more monsters with Kage-nawashi to clear the way for Rin-chan.

"Hahahaha!"

I swung Kage-nawashi, again and again, and again and again. I shattered each monster's skull one by one, and they instantly turned into polygons. It was so much fun that I couldn't help but laugh.

Since the second day of the Monster House, I had poured all the bonus points from the levels I had gained into my strength. My strength value was no longer comparable to what it was back then. After consecutive boss battles and repeated clearings of the Monster House, my level had surpassed 70, and my strength value had finally reached 300. The increase in weapon attack power due to my combat weapon skill proficiency exceeding 300, combined with the activation of Famished Wolf, which alone doubled my firepower, meant that my current firepower was at least twice what it was back then.

Moreover, most of the monsters in the Feas area were below level 50, so I didn't even need to destroy specific body parts. My firepower in this level range was so overwhelming that a single critical hit could obliterate an enemy.

However, the Monster House also includes powerful monsters, not just the Hobgoblin Archers. The larger the scale, the more mixed the strength of the monsters. I needed to reduce the total number of monsters while eliminating the troublesome ranged attackers. For that, Rin-chan's magic was essential.

Rin-chan has the wisdom, knowledge, and skill to use a wide variety of spells, but her original stats are heavily specialized in magic. In other words, Rin-chan is a wide-area destruction mage.

The moment I had slaughtered a dozen or so monsters, Rin-chan's singing echoed. The defense provided by Electro Barrier is strong but doesn't last long. Anticipating that I would have generated enough hate, Rin-chan began her incantation.

With her arms moving like a conductor, she cast a high-level lightning spell with a 20-verse song. Unlike the user-friendly Lightning Barrage, this was a troublesome spell, the problem child of lightning magic.

"Lightning Vortex!"

With a loud voice, Rin-chan called out the name of the spell. A massive whirlwind of lightning spread out from Rin-chan, not raining down but dispersing from the center. Even a mage as powerful as Rin-chan had to consume more than 30% of her MP to cast this spell, which scattered a destructive storm in all directions.

None of the monsters around her could withstand it, and Rin-chan obliterated all the monsters within a 20-meter radius. The monsters' attention shifted to Rin-chan, who had generated far more hate than I had. In that brief moment, I used the monsters as stepping stones to leap over the crowd.

In a floor-wide Monster House, not all monsters necessarily have hate towards the player. Especially here, where the density of monsters is abnormal, some of them haven't even noticed the players' presence.

I spotted a very dangerous monster whose presence could drastically change the difficulty of the Monster House. Fortunately, it hadn't noticed us yet, so I left Rin-chan's side to hunt it down.

"Ora!"

I switched Kage-nawashi to a reverse grip in mid-air and threw it like a meteor. The sound of it slicing through the air was followed by the shattering of a robed humanoid's head. Fortunately, it was taken down without doing anything.

"Yosh!"

The name of that monster was "Role Player - Buffer Type." As the name suggests, it was a troublesome monster that appeared in dungeons beyond the sixth city and used buff skills. The "Role Player" monsters usually appear in parties of four, each with a different role. For example, a Warrior Type would be a warrior, and a Mage Type would be a mage. In a sense, they are like advanced versions of goblins.

The difference from goblins is that their bodies are dolls and they think mechanically, for better or worse. In battle, they show no mercy or hesitation, and they don't engage in the kind of erratic behavior that goblins do. They are always lethal killing dolls. When it comes to the Buffer Type, it becomes a terrible monster that spam casts support spells until its MP runs out. While it's not as much of a threat when it appears in a party because the targets for support spells are limited, in the environment of the Monster House, this characteristic becomes a nightmare. The fear of having a vast number of monsters continuously buffed is even more terrifying than it sounds.

While recalling such a terrifying experience, I retrieved Kage-nawashi from the monsters it had distracted. Kage-nawashi had killed several other monsters besides the Role Player, attracting their attention. I briefly took out Meteor Impact Zero to stomp on the monsters at my feet and then put it away. I weaved through the monsters watching Kage-nawashi from a distance, picked it up, and used the momentum to blow away the monster in front of me.

"Next!"

I tremble at the power of my strength and Kage-nawashi, which can obliterate several monsters with a single throw, but I decide it feels good and let it go. I used a Puchi Golem as a shield to block a spell that was flying at me from behind and then launched another Puchi Golem cannon to crush a Hobgoblin Mage that I suspected was casting spells.

The Puchi Golem cannon is a lightweight projectile. Playing baseball with monsters is fun, but the fact that only Puchi Golems can withstand the force of Kage-nawashi is a problem.

"...Bolt Arrow Death Rain!"

While I was dealing with the troublesome monsters, Rin-chan had cast another area-of-effect spell. Bolt Arrow Death Rain is a simple spell that rains down bolt arrows, as the name suggests. Don't underestimate bolt arrows just because they are a low-level spell. The higher your intelligence, the more powerful the spell becomes. Even if it's a low-level spell, when cast by Rin-chan, it truly becomes a rain of death.

"Wow, that's intense."

The bolt arrows in Bolt Arrow Death Rain can be aimed if you want to. About 50 to 100 arrows. The difficulty is like controlling that many hands at once. Normally, it's impossible. Humans only have two hands, after all. Unfortunately, that's Rin-chan's specialty.

All the arrows accurately pierce the monsters' vital points, stopping their movements. For enemies that can't be killed in one hit, she follows up with a second or third shot. With just bolt arrows, she doesn't allow the surrounding monsters to move at all. The area around Rin-chan, several dozen meters, is like an inviolable zone. The sound of thunder echoed through the dungeon.

The high-speed moving monsters in the large room of the Monster House... they move four times faster in an instant... my head... The Role Player - Buffer is roughly that kind of monster. The best strategy is to kill on sight in any situation. They are fragile, so they are easy to take down.

Melti: "Why did it get extended for three days?"

Creator God: "I messed up the schedule."