Volume 4 Chapter 7.5
Volume 4 Chapter 7.5
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
「That’s about all the prep I can do. You good?」
「Yep. Let’s go then」
Nodding at Hiroshi, Makoto motioned to go after prepping her three katanas for takeout. When he heard that, Hiroshi stood at the front to prevent sneak attacks. Haruna began partial chanting so that she could activate healing magic if anything happened, while Tatsuya stocked a defense barrier using a new staff with newly added functions.
Fully prepared, the moment they peered into the boss room, the elder members had slight looks of despair on their faces, and the student age members’ faces looked surprised.
「Behemoth? Are you kidding me……」
「Yep, it’s Behemoth all right……」
「We got ourselves a behemoth!!」
「All right, it’s a behemoth!!」
「Behemoth……!!」
Indeed. The opponent enshrined in the boss room waiting eagerly for the arrival of the intruders was a famous big boss, possibly on the level of a dragon in notoriety, the king of the beasts that went by the name Behemoth. In the case of Fairy Tale Chronicles, its design was half bull and half bear, with other animals like dogs, cats, and boars mixed in for good balance. It was quite the sight to behold.
Its overall height was half a tower golem’s, but still a ridiculously gigantic stature to the point where that didn’t even matter, and it possessed enough battle prowess to overwhelm Class 3 adventurers. Normally this would be a desperate situation, but…
「Behemoth katsudon, teriyaki, kabayaki, so many options mate」
「Sensei, I say we start with roast behemoth」
「Or behemoth stew and behemoth strogonoff. Those sound good too.」
Normally this would be a fearsome foe to behold, but the only thing on the minds of Hiroshi and the teenagers was food, and nothing but food.
「So, Hiro……」
「Wazzup?」
「Are we seriously going to eat it……」
「Mah boi, this feast is what all true warriors strive for!!」
Hiroshi proclaimed boldly at he stared intensely at Behemoth, tightly gripping the poleaxe. The only thing in his eyes was appetite.
「Plus maybe not you Bro, but Makoto-san, ya knocked down a behemoth no problem before right?」
「I mean, I won’t say I haven’t, but……」
「It’s just a lil big, but it’s a chump compared to them tower golems, mate」
「It’s weird comparing the two, but behemoths are NOT chumps okay!?」
Cold sweat running down her shoulders, Makoto interjected desperately in response to Hiroshi’s food-obsessed rambling. She was not about to go into a suicidal battle just because Hiroshi assumed it was an easy win.
「It’s alright, just look at the pressure and miasma in the area. We can totes deal with it mate!」
「That’s not reassuring at all!」
「It ain’t like I’m gonna change nothin’ I’m doing, ‘n then we got Class 1 potions ‘n materials to use against that dude. If ya got time to grumble, ya got time to beat ‘im up mate!」
「Ugh, fine! I get it, okay! Not like I even have a choice in the matter!」
「Then let’s-a-go! Come to papa, ya big hunk o’ food!!」
With a battle cry, Hiroshi activated Outclass at the outset of battle as per usual, exerting pressure. The intimidation emanating from Hiroshi this time around was strong enough to pummel Behemoth into outright fear, something a normal human could never even come close to accomplishing. The beast apparently understood it was literally (and culinarily) about to be eaten, and that its opponent did in fact have the means to carry it out.
「Behemoth is scared, guys……」
「Ah, who frickin’ cares!! We might as well just take him down and eat our fill!!」
Makoto, who had already interjected so many times to where she could no longer interject, snapped at Tatsuya (who had a look of mute amazement on his face) before running to join the fray. In the end, the behemoth, frightened from the very start instead of using its special move, was forced into an upright position by Hiroshi before having its neck sliced off by three consecutive hits from Makoto’s desperate but magnificent extra skill, having ultimately no chance to even show off and existing only to be eaten by everyone (and was very tasty).
「Behemoth was defeated in the Crest Cave dungeon……」
「Seriously?」
「Yes.」
「I do admit that the dungeon was still under growth and the behemoth lacked its original strength, but is this not a little quick? 」
「Still, we cannot change what has transpired. Thankfully, the dungeon itself has now become fully established. We only happened to have a few strong ones go all the way in by coincidence this time around, but next time will not be so easy.」
Approximately one month after Crest Cave turned into a dungeon. The dark lords had apparently not anticipated the existence of adventurers who would clear it this early on. In the first place, even thieves would have trouble with the amount of natural-looking cave traps, and to go all the way to the end should still take you a year or so, even if you came prepared.
But then there were the traps, most of which you couldn’t get through even with the proper information. In fact, because there was so little in terms of proper information, they had predicted an increase in casualties, so perhaps it was not all that bad to have the first adventurers clear it more quickly than anticipated.
「Seeing as a lot of holy energy will be taken up with the regeneration of Behemoth, the amount of holy energy to divert to the dungeon at present will decrease by a substantial amount, but if word comes out about the dungeon and reckless people come to take on the challenge, we can undoubtedly replenish what was lost rather quickly.」
「Right. As long as the dungeon grows, it will be impossible to excavate ore in Crest Cave. And with that, we shall be able to shake the framework of Forre.」
「The only concern I have is how many times these adventurers have succeeded in defeating Behemoth. Such a feat should not be possible.」
「Indeed. Even if it is not at full strength, it is impossible to defeat it with such ease.」
But as the lords of darkness continued this comparatively optimistic conversation, the adventurers in question were…
「It ain’t like no one else is showin up, so how bout we wait for respawn and beat it two more times?」
「Umm…you do realize we can’t stay here for that long, right?」
「I think average respawn time fer bosses was 8 hours, so I think if we camp around at the previous clearing for a night the behemoth’ll be there again」
「Wait, two more times? That means we’ll run out of those orbs. We can’t make any more, right?」
「Nah. Got me some gallstones from Behemoth, so if ya hunt down some garbarensias again I can make em. The tower golem pieces were only substituted after all.」
If the dark lords knew that such a conversation were unfolding, they would have most certainly immediately rethought the whole process. But now…
「……Not only did they ignore the return gate, they waited for Behemoth to respawn before immediately taking it down again. Remind me again of who the monsters are here……」
「……Who would normally think to battle a boss again and again anyway……」
「……And to top it off, these aren’t even just veteran adventurers like we thought, they’re those “visitors”……」
「……We definitely should have gotten rid of them right when they came to Forre……」
Unable to comprehend the actions of these video game shut ins, a total of three behemoths were now defeated after two days at a high pace, and the dark lords were faced with no alternative but to weaken the dungeon in its entirety.