Chapter 77

77 The Phantom King

Thirty minutes had passed since we defeated the Legendary Skeleton, but we were still sitting around in its room . Fran and Jean were restoring their MP through potions, but I was stuck waiting for mine to naturally regenerate .

I was still far from ready to explore despite the fact that we'd already rested up quite a decent bit . My durability was at half, and I had less than 500 MP remaining .

Fran's armour had almost been completely torn to shreds, so Jean summoned a skeleton to repair it . He was so prepared for any given situation that he even had the necessary magic crystal on hand .

I decided to use this time to inspect a few of the skills I gained throughout the dungeon's exploration .

The ones I looked at first were the ones I got from the Legendary Skeleton . Specifically, I focused on Appraisal Jamming and Autocast before looking into three of the skills I got from other parts of the dungeon, namely, Mana Emission, Physical Barrier, Herculean Strength . All five of these skills were currently Lv 1 .

The first skill I tried to use was naturally Appraisal Jamming . And as I expected, the skill's functions seemed relatively limited because it was still stuck at Lv 1 . Like other informatic-type skills, it wouldn't be able to prove itself useful unless I pointed it .

The spells Autocast were pretty weak too . A kid could do the same amount of damage if they just chucked a pebble at something . Yeah, I don't really know what I expected from a Lv 1 skill .

Mana emission did exactly what it said it did, and allowed me to emit magical energy . I could use it for both offense and defense by either firing it off like I would a bullet or spreading it around me like I would a barrier . It was a great skill, but again, it wasn't really able to do all that much at Lv 1 .

Physical Barrier was pretty much the same as one of the skills I already had, Magical Barrier . The only difference was that the former had better defense against physical attacks, whereas the latter had better defense against magic .

The Herculean Strength skill was an active buff . It would temporarily increase the user's strength upon use . I'm not really sure what to feel about the numbers though, they seemed kind of pathetic . The Lv 1 version would only raise the stat by 2 for 10 minutes, but I am kind of curious as to what would happen if I pointed it .

Honestly speaking, none of the skills I gained would really help us much in a fight, Latent Potential Release aside, that is .

I didn't mind though . All the skirmishes and boss battles we've experienced throughout the dungeon have allowed Fran and Urushi to level up 10 and 15 times respectively . Those level ups alone have more than increased our combat prowess by more than enough .

「Nom nom . 」

「Chomp Chomp . 」

「Splendid, another meal as delectable as could be . 」

Fran, Urushi and Jean ate as we rested . The three were all greedily shoving pieces of my special fried chicken down their throats, though I guess it'd be called fried monster instead, seeing as how it was made out of meat harvested from a variety of magic beasts instead of well, you know, chicken . It seemed that fried foods were exceptionally difficult to come by, and now that I think about it, I can't seem to recall ever seeing anyone ever bread anything before frying it - though I have seen people dumping food in piping hot oil before . The fried foods I made were apparently so uncommon that they even caught Jean by surprise .

Urushi was especially overjoyed . He got way more than usual because both Fran and Jean continued to pass him bones as they finished with their meat .

「Hmm... it appears as if Fly's discovered another door . Hahahaha! And this time, he's found the dungeon core behind it!」

「Boss?」

「Allow me just a moment to answer that question for you . 」

Jean pauses .

「...」

『What's wrong?』

「I've lost Fly's signal . 」

「Killed?」

「It appears so, but he's already informed me of the path we should follow . And so, I shall take the lead . 」

The monsters on the dungeon's tenth floor were pretty much exactly the same as the ones on the ninth, but we had an easier time dealing with them . We knew that we were about to finish the dungeon, so we started pushing forward with renewed vigour whilst also using our items more generously .

「Behold, companions of mine! That door right there is what marks the boss' room . 」

We finally managed to reach the dungeon's last boss after three entire days worth of exploration .

I absorbed quite a few magic stones during all the skirmishing we did on our way here, so I managed to recover almost all my durability alongside 2000 or so MP .

Fran's movements have gone up a notch as well . The fight with the Legendary Skeleton had provided her with quite a bit of combat experience .

But despite our improvements, we continued to keep our guards up .

「Boss?」

「Fly was not able to provide us any information, but there is simply no way the room would be left unguarded . 」

『The dungeon master's probably in the core room as well . 』

The dungeon master might turn out to be something pretty powerful given the scale of the dungeon he's managed to create . He's even able to order B ranked magic beasts around, so we know for sure that he can't just be some random pushover .

「I require some time to prepare . 」

『Prepare what?』

「Wahahahahaha! I'm glad you asked . The answer is of course, my trump card . Its incurs quite the cost, so I wished to avoid its application whenever possible . However, the current state of affairs calls for me to prepare for the worst . 」

Jean was right . We needed to do everything in our power to ready ourselves for the battle ahead...except I didn't know what or how to prepare .

「Raise skills?」

『That's one thing I was considering...』

I still had 25 self evolution points remaining, but I had to make sure I used them wisely .

『I think it'd be better for me to save them for now so I can point whatever we end up needing to beat the boss . 』

The floor boss had to be at least a threat level B, and we didn't have the slightest clue as to what we were up against . Pointing stuff right now might end up screwing us over instead of doing us any good .

「Fran, Master, I would like to request that you retrieve a few of the items I left within your dimensional storages . 」

『Which ones?』

「The first I would like to retrieve would be the pendant . 」

The pendant? Oh yeah, there was something like that wasn't there?

「This?」

「Precisely . I'd like to you wear it . 」

What the hell? Whoever made that thing has to have some issues, I swear . There's an incredibly realistic zombie face plastered onto the pendant .

「That pendant functions to protect the user in the case they take a fatal blow . 」

『Seriously?』

It totally looks like the type of item you'd use to curse someone or summon a zombie or something like that .

「Hahaha! Your doubts are well placed . I made the same mistake in the past, and only purchased the item because I'd assumed it would have some use in necromancy . 」

『Well, yeah . I mean it's literally a zombie head on a pendant . 』

「It's effect is quite incredible regardless though, is it not?」

The pendant would stop the user from dying once whilst restoring both their HP and MP back up to half . The latter half of the effect was impressive, and evidenced that the pendant was a pretty expensive item . Other, similar items would often just leave the user with a single point of HP .

『Well, if you're sure you don't mind, we gratefully accept . 』

「No problem . That aside, I would also like you to retrieve several other items as well . 」

「Which?」

「Most of the amulets . I would prefer that you wear them as well, in fact . 」

Fran ended up getting about 10 different magical amulets . I couldn't really feel much magical energy emanating from them, but they were still pretty nice to have for the sake of peace of mind .

「And with that out of the way, I too must prepare myself for battle . 」

We bring out a bunch of different tools and medicines as per Jean's request .

One of the items he picked was a large, rectangular box . Inside of it was a sinister looking, spine shaped staff topped off by a skull . It suited Jean pretty well because of how ominous he looked, and really amplified that necromancer vibe he had going for him .

I quickly sweeped over the staff and appraised it .

Name: Unknown

Huh, doesn't seem like I can appraise it .

「Hahahahaha! This staff is a bit special . You will require more than a merely the appraisal skill to see its worth . 」

「Why?」

「Its name is Aidoneus' Blessing, a named item I happened to procure in a dungeon during one of my adventures . 」

It seemed that the staff's stats were so high that I'd need some sort of upgraded or special appraisal skill to be able to see through it .

『It's ability is t-』

「Kukakakakakakaka!」

『Wha-!!』

「Nn?」

「Woof?」

What was that? It sounded like a human laugh, and at first I thought it came from the staff, but Jean seemed surprised as well, so that can't be right .

「Kukakakaka!」

The laugh was strangely irritating too . Just hearing it was enough to annoy me .

I quickly began scanning the room for the voice's source .

And that was when the situation took a sudden turn for the worse .

A loud "shing" resounded through the corridor, accompanied by a bright, glowing light .

『A magic circle?!』

My crisis sense started to go off as a magic circle appeared within the hallway .

Shit!

『Fran, Urushi!』

Fuck, it doesn't look like we're going to be able to avoid it .

The magic circle began to expand . It only took a few seconds for it to grow to the point where it filled the entire corridor with blinding light .

「You've kept me waiting for far too long . If you won't come, then I'll just bring you right to me! Kukakakakaka!」

Our surroundings had completely changed by the time the light had disappeared . We were now standing within a large room, several times larger than any other we've come across in the dungeon thus far . But despite that, all our gazes were focused but on a single target .

Or rather, we had no choice but to direct our attention straight ahead . We simply didn't have the liberty to pick any other option .

「Kuakakaka! Welcome, intruders of mine . 」

The figure that stood before us was emanating an overwhelming amount of magical energy . His very existence seemed to lay ridiculous pressure upon us, but most importantly, he was implausibly revolting to gaze upon .

His threat level was estimated to be a B, but I simply couldn't see him as something that stood shoulder to shoulder with the Legendary Skeleton we defeated earlier . He was so powerful that I probably would've shat myself if I wasn't a sword .

The colour drained from Fran's face as she tightened her grip on my handle . She was able to stand up to a demon without so much as even flinching, but the being before us was so intimidating that she had started to tremble in fear .

.

『Don't worry, Fran . 』

Seeing Fran like that calmed me down in an instant . Why the hell was I getting all panicked? I couldn't let myself get carried away, I still had to protect her . For the time being, I decided to consider our escape options . We could still use the Warp Feather if it really came down to it .

『We're going to be making a break for it, Fran . 』

(Understood . )

『Jean, let's get the hell out of here . 』

「Hold that thought for just a moment . 」

Fran had already grabbed ahold of Jean's arm, and I had already readied the Warp Feather . There wasn't any way in hell we'd be able to fight the monster standing before us .

But .

『The hell!?』

The Warp Feather refused to activate . I didn't know what happened, nor did I know what to say . I should've had more than enough magical power .

「Kukakaka! Unfortunately for you, this room was designed to prevent escape through teleportation . You have no choice but to fight me to the death! Kukakaka! Kukakakakakakaka!」

The monster, the lich standing before us laughed joyously as he announced a cruel declaration .