Chapter 183
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 183
Chapter Title: Bone Dragon (2)
[First Named]
[Bone Dragon]
[HP 1,000,000,000 / 1,000,000,000 (100%)]
"A billion."
"What could it mean?"
The Red and White Attack Squad, now without Chris.
Even with one of their longtime raid leaders gone, every member gathered here was a player at the forefront of early dungeon clears, pioneers who had navigated unknown mechanics. Their skills hadn't gone anywhere.
The temporary raid leader of the Red and White Attack Squad, 'Death of Death,' and the vice-leader, 'Beimerung,' were the first to regain their composure and begin analyzing the situation, while the other members looked ready to faint at the sight of the outrageous HP bar.
"It just means the users' specs have gotten that much stronger. There are enhancement items that add holy damage to weapons now, and they have to differentiate it from previous raid dungeons."
"The last 12-man raid dungeon, the Tree of the Abyss, had Named monsters with 200 million HP for the first, 500 million for the second, and 300 million for the final boss."
"That was for a 12-man party. In this expansion pack, the elite dungeon, the Celestial Basin, has a boss fusion with 100 million HP. And that's for a 4-man party. Even considering that, this is an enormous amount for the first Named monster. I can only think of one possibility."
Cherni, who had approached to admire the Bone Dragon's grotesque form, nodded in agreement.
"A boss whose HP has to be whittled down through a mechanic."
"What could it be?"
"In a typical case, there would be special objects nearby for executing the mechanic."
The other squad members had already begun to wander around the Bone Dragon, searching for such objects.
But there was nothing but cliffs and piles of bones. Not all the bones scattered here had gathered to form the Bone Dragon. As if to mark this as the Named monster's combat zone, spear-sized bone pillars surrounded the Bone Dragon in a circle.
Beimerung approached one of the bone pillars and grunted, trying to pull it out. But the bone seemed firmly rooted in the earth and wouldn't budge.
"This isn't it, I guess."
Cherni tilted his head and stroked his chin.
"Hmm. I don't see any other particularly special objects."
"In that case, either a special object will appear during the fight with the Bone Dragon, or we have to use its attacks against it. Or, there's an object we haven't found yet. We always have to be careful before the first attempt."
"The area is so open, I doubt anything else will pop up. Beimerung, are you saying we should look around a bit more?"
"Yeah. Chris was always especially cautious in raid dungeons. Didn't she always spend at least twenty minutes scouting the area before starting a Named fight?"
"What a pain. If we just start hitting it, something's bound to happen."
"H-Hey, wait a minute!"
Despite Beimerung's attempt to stop him, Death of Death strode forward, swinging his arms in circles. Following his lead, 'Gandal' and 'Leroy Hopkins,' the two Warriors of the Red and White Attack Squad, walked out, brandishing their axes.
"Khahat, they say you should tap even a stone bridge before crossing. Since this is bone, is it a bone bridge?"
"Isn't this the specialty of Warriors with high defense?"
"Huhu. A fine attitude."
Seeing the three hulks fully prepared to start hammering on the Bone Dragon's bones, Beimerung sighed.
She couldn't control these brutes.
"Haaah, I miss Chris."
Beimerung felt endlessly envious of Chris, who was enjoying a date in the gorge with just Rain, free from such headaches.
*
"Mhm. Mhmhm."
"......?"
Is she humming?
Chris, who was walking around the Bone Dragon with me, seemed to be in a very good mood. Actually, she'd been grinning foolishly ever since we descended the cliff.
"The bones... they're so sturdy and thick... but my Rain is so slender. She must need more calcium... Should I buy her more supplements...?"
Chris was muttering something to herself as she touched the bone pillars surrounding the Named monster's combat zone.
Why was she mentioning my name while touching the Bone Dragon's bones?
Chris and I had been living together for a long time, but I still found it hard to completely understand her. Like how she could react so intensely depending on the question.
I puffed out my cheeks.
"Aren't we supposed to be looking for special objects?"
"O-Oh? Right. I'm looking hard, too."
Chris turned to me with a start. I gave her a suspicious look.
"It doesn't look like it...."
"Why is my Rain so suspicious? Come here, I'll give you a hug."
My mood softened at the bright smile on Chris's face as she opened her arms to me.
Sluggishly, as if I didn't really want to, I approached her and settled into her open arms.
Poof.
A smile spread across my face from the warmth of Chris's embrace. It felt like even the chill from the dreary fissure was melting away.
Ah, I shouldn't be doing this.
I needed to be the sharp one today, in place of the strangely acting Chris.
The cool raid leader Chris was gone, replaced by this doting fool who just kept grinning. I lost the will to complain and simply nuzzled my cheek against her warm chest.
"...Hah!"
Thrust.
Not long after, I came to my senses and pushed away Chris, who was thoroughly enjoying the feel of my body.
Chris licked her lips with a disappointed look. I grumbled.
"I-Is this why you wanted to run the dungeon together!? I hug you every day at home, don't I?"
"This is our first time trying a new dungeon together, Rain. Hehe. When we were carrying others, I had to be mindful of everyone and the customers, so I couldn't hug you often, could I?"
"Haaah."
This woman loves my body way too much. She tries to hug me at every opportunity. Not that I dislike being her personal comfort doll, but I wish she'd show a little restraint at times like this.
The first Named, the 'Bone Dragon,' bound by the system not to attack unless we entered its aggro range, simply stared at our lovey-dovey display with its empty eye sockets.
"But I really don't know."
There were no obvious special objects in sight.
In times like these, the answer is simple. We just have to charge in and see what happens.
Shing.
I drew Astaroth from its sheath and began to approach the Bone Dragon's colossal form.
Tap, tap.
Chris, meanwhile, still seemed very interested in the bone pillars surrounding the combat zone. At first, she was just touching them, but now she was tapping on them.
"...Chris? Aren't you going to start?"
"Rain, come here for a second."
"......?"
With a puzzled expression, I walked over to Chris, who was still touching a bone pillar.
Tap, tap.
She was still tapping it. When I got closer, she spoke to me without taking her eyes off the bone.
"These bones, what material do they look like to you?"
"...The material? Aren't bones just... bones? Uh, umm. Calcium or something?"
How was I supposed to know what bones are made of? I think I might have gone to school in my past life, but as my reincarnated self, I had to strain my brain to dig up those memories. You could call it a pure white brain.
Feeling strangely self-conscious, I puffed out my cheeks again.
"You're not making fun of me for not going to school, are you?"
"Kukuk, that's not it. The bones of living creatures, while varying slightly by species, are usually made of collagen, minerals, and so on. And, calcium. You got it right. Calcium absorbs X-rays the best, which is why bones appear white in X-ray images."
As she patted my head as if to say, "Good job," I tried my best to suppress the pleasant feeling and subtly dodged her hand.
"...Is this a sudden science lesson? There must be a reason you're asking this, right?"
"Of course, there is. Try touching this dragon bone."
I did as Chris said, approaching the bone pillar and touching it. It was smooth and hard. It didn't seem to be hollow.
"The fact that these bones are the only things that look like objects means that if anything has a role, it has to be them. Of course, there's a chance they're just decorations."
"Oh."
I thought of myself as an analyst, but Chris was far more cautious than I was. She didn't overlook a single stone.
"But you know, this doesn't feel like a normal bone."
"Well, it is the bone of a dragon."
"The material is strange."
"Material...?"
I tilted my head, then clapped my hands together.
"Come to think of it, back when I was active on this continent, I heard that good weapons were made from dragon bone. It was difficult to process, but in terms of hardness, it was supposedly superior to mithril."
This world was now a game.
When you killed a raid dungeon Named or a world boss-level dragon, its corpse would slowly fade into another dimension, leaving behind drop items.
But I'd heard that in the past, on the Astria Continent, people used the scales and bones from dragon carcasses to craft various pieces of equipment.
I, too, had encountered a dragon tainted by demonic energy once while operating separately from the resistance. After Sister Melissa defeated it, she had gazed at the corpse with a look of regret and carefully marked the location on her map before we left. Of course, it wasn't a time when humans could roam freely, so it's unlikely any outsider would have carried off that massive corpse. I'm sure she passed the information along to the resistance to have them take care of it.
"In that case, we can consider dragon bone a type of metal, right? If it's a metal standing upright like this, what purpose could it have?"
Now she was wondering about the purpose of a vertically-standing metal.
I whined, tugging on the hem of Chris's clothes.
"Chrisss. Let's just hurry up."
We hadn't even started the attempt, and we'd already been analyzing for thirty minutes.
Why was Chris being so cautious?
"We need to minimize the number of attempts."
Chris muttered with a determined look in her eyes. Her words made me realize why she was being so careful today.
"......."
Chris didn't want to see me get hurt, not with my high synchronization rate.
But this was a 12-man recommended raid dungeon, with an overwhelming HP of one billion.
Even if we found a mechanic to chip away at its health, we would still have to deal a certain amount of direct damage to defeat it.
Could just two people, even top-tier players, dish out the damage of twelve? It was utterly impossible.
Coming here with just the two of us meant I would have to show Chris the Hero's power.
And with it, the sight of my body trembling in pain, an inevitable part of the process.