Chapter 117: How to Catch a Monster
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 117: How to Catch a Monster
A thick cloud of dust billowed up.
Hazy smoke filled the air before my eyes.
Cough! Cough!
The sound of Back Attack coughing.
"Is everyone alright?"
Aimus scanned our surroundings.
"I can't believe the parasol just blew away like that."
To be honest, I hadn't expected it to be this powerful either.
This was more destructive than any Corpse Explosion Scroll I knew.
It seemed the scrolls he pulled from his palm weren't ordinary.
In the game, a scroll's power was independent of the user's stats and was instead influenced by the creator's Wisdom stat. Of course, that only applied to items crafted by wizards in cities.
Scrolls produced in the Labyrinth had no creator, so their power was random.
Still, they generally followed a normal distribution, giving them a predictable scale. But these Corpse Explosion Scrolls seemed to be outliers, far beyond that curve.
'Are the White Lion's scrolls made by the Goddess of Gifts and Scrolls herself?'
The thought occurred to me that it might be possible.
"I can't see a thing! Everyone, stay on your guard!" I yelled out.
The White Lion couldn't be dead yet. How did I know without seeing him? Because the annex's structural transformation hadn't been undone.
Fwoosh!
I unfurled the scroll to try and see through the dust with my Watcher, but there was nothing to be seen inside it.
"Damn."
The Watcher had been caught in the explosion and destroyed.
Since I still had the scroll, I could summon it again after some time, but not right now.
"Ugh..."
Dalstream got to his feet, clutching his back as if he'd pulled it, groaning.
"How can mid-floor adventurers..."
He coughed a few times.
"...use such radical tactics? No, more importantly, what did you do with the scrolls, Caleb? How did that tiny knife fragment detonate all of them? Ho ho, my word."
Then, as if remembering something, he flinched in surprise.
"D-don't tell me... Caleb. Has your party always fought like this... in the Labyrinth?"
The old professor's eyes widened in shock.
"Something like that," Aimus answered for me.
Somehow, I felt that if Isilof or Meldini were here, I'd be getting an earful right now.
"That's not what's important! We need to find the White Lion!"
I was worried he might have escaped, but there was a reason for Dalstream's composure.
"Do not worry. I have him in my sights."
A blue light gleamed in the old professor's eyes.
Arcane Sight.
It was a special ability that Elf wizard NPCs sometimes had.
With it, one could see through darkness, dust, and fog. It seemed Dalstream had located the White Lion a while ago.
He pointed his wand deep into the settling dust cloud.
Now I could see him too.
Indeed.
'His durability is insane.'
I knew he'd be alive, but to think he was still standing on his own two feet.
No, this was truly no ordinary monster.
"...Grk..."
But the White Lion was also severely wounded.
For one, an arm was gone.
His right arm, the one he'd reached out to grab the knife fragment with, was missing from just below the shoulder.
And blood was gushing from his entire body in amounts I didn't think possible. It felt like a miracle he was even standing with that much blood loss.
The monster's mane was stained red.
"Hahaha!"
Back Attack suddenly burst out laughing.
"You little shit! Did you dye your hair? You're the Red Lion now, huh?"
"..."
"You know what you look like? One of those little dogs with the pink dye job that hairdressers keep. You know the ones?"
Back Attack was taunting him!
"So that's why you tried to fetch the knife fragment I threw, huh? Hah. Shit, can't be helped. It's an instinct in your genes, right? Yeah~ but it was a bomb."
"Keuk."
The White Lion coughed up a mouthful of blood.
"How..."
He steadied himself against a wall, catching his breath.
"How in the world... did you do that?" he asked, glaring at me as if he wanted to kill me.
Honestly, it was a little scary.
"When you released the Spider Doctor... I knew you weren't just some nobody... Gak."
The White Lion spat out another clump of blood.
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, panting for air.
"..."
"..."
A brief silence followed.
The tension was so sharp it felt like it could cut skin.
Dalstream stared at the White Lion, not moving a muscle.
Aimus, tense, gripped his dented iron staff tightly.
Even Back Attack, despite his bravado, seemed to have instinctively realized it.
That victory was still far from certain.
The reason was simple.
'Dalstream's Ethereal Lake is gone.'
At the last moment, the professor had shaped the Ethereal Lake into a shield, creating a buffer against the explosion's shockwave. Thanks to him, we weren't seriously injured, but that was all it could do.
He himself had been thrown back, breaking his concentration. Even if he had maintained it, the spell's duration was probably up.
So, to summarize the current situation:
An Archmage who can't use Tier 8 magic, plus three 4th-floor adventurers.
Our opponent: a critically wounded, Deep Layer boss-level, rogue-type monster.
Are the odds about fifty-fifty?
Ha.
Fuck.
Shouldn't the others be here by now? Meldini, Isilof.
Consul. Chrome!
What is everyone doing?
*
"Who the hell are these guys?"
Chrome put a hand to his forehead, looking troubled.
"Did you all agree to just go all out in the open now?"
"You're the one who attacked our Assembly's leader first."
'Growling Chihuahua' bared her cute little teeth fiercely and tapped her wand against her palm.
"That cat bastard I was fighting was your Assembly's leader? I thought one was a monster and the other was a wizard disguised as one. They were the same person?"
"Don't play dumb. You knew. We know you told your Blackdog companions about the White Lion."
"That's right, Chrome. And you ran your mouth to the Consul several times, too, didn't you? We know everything," said Broccoli Dipped in Red Chili Paste.
"Who are these people, Chrome? Do you know them?" the Consul asked tensely, aiming his sword.
It was because the pair of wizards they had suddenly encountered had rather bewildering appearances.
One was a tall, well-built man, but instead of a face, he had a head of broccoli. Drizzled with red sauce.
The other was a petite woman, but instead of a face, she wore the face of a chihuahua. One that was baring its teeth with a Grrrr!
"How many times have I told you? There are rats hiding in this university," Chrome snapped.
"You people! I don't know who you are, but if you intend to interfere, I won't let you get away with it!" Magistrate Delphin shouted bravely.
"Of course we're going to interfere. The White Lion is pretty important to us, too. By the way, where are Nimue and Rococo?" the Chihuahua asked.
Nimue was a Deep Layer mage of the Frostian race, and Rococo was a former cardinal of the Sanfriel Temple. Both were members of Chrome's party.
"First the White Lion, now you guys. Are you their fans or something? Why do you keep looking for them?"
"Just because. Nimue is pretty! Eeek!"
The Chihuahua acted cute in a flirty way.
"If I had to fight someone, I'd have wanted to fight Nimue, not some gross green monster."
"What a bunch of crazy bastards. So, did any of the Assembly's rats go after Meldini or Isilof?"
"A few went," Broccoli nodded.
"I'm sorry, but we don't have time for this," the Consul said.
"That explosion just now didn't seem ordinary. If you're going to get in our way, I will execute you."
*
Unfortunately for us, the arm the White Lion had lost was his right one. The Scroll Gate was attached to his left hand.
Chk.
The White Lion pulled a scroll from his palm with his mouth.
The fact that he had to resort to that without a hand made it clear he was at his limit.
"What scroll is that?" Dalstream asked, his voice tense.
"Guess," the White Lion said with a smile, pulling out another scroll.
He held two scrolls in his hand.
The demon stared at us intently.
I had a good idea what kind of scrolls those were.
'Designated Coordinate Transfer Scroll.'
It had to be.
There were very few spells that could teleport Maria from the university all the way to the Union's second inn.
At best, something like Chakbyeokingwang?
But Taoist arts, by their nature, are difficult to make into scrolls, so it was probably a Designated Coordinate Transfer spell.
It's a spell that lets you set a specific location and teleport to that point at any time.
For example, if you set it to the magic university's lobby, you could always travel there like a designated portal. The distance limit is very generous, allowing travel to faraway cities, but it has a fatal flaw.
'You can't change the designated location.'
One spell slot corresponds to one specific location, so the actual demand for the magic is very low. Only people doing business between distant cities might consider using it.
But...
'When you pull it out as a scroll, you can designate the location as you wish?'
This time, the second inn.
Next time, the magic university.
After that, Wyndham.
And then Flandre. Like that?
Ha. That scroll-producing Doraemon ability really is broken. No, it's like he's Hong Gildong or something.
Because of that ability, I had been certain it would be nearly impossible for the professors to catch the White Lion.
Unless you could kill him with a massive burst of damage in one go, he could just pull out a scroll and escape, making him impossible to catch.
But I had one question.
If he was going to run, why did he pull out two scrolls?
"Honestly, I never thought I'd be cornered like this," the White Lion said.
"But I still cannot fail."
So he has no intention of running.
This guy's tenacity is insane.
Fwip!
The White Lion used Leaping Ambush.
'He's coming!'
His target was still Dalstream.
Knowing that, I should be able to land a hit and create an opening.
Thanks to all the blood he'd lost, the monster was in a 'Wet' state.
"Superconduction."
I chanted the spell preemptively, a conditioned reflex the moment the White Lion vanished.
I have to stun him.
Even for a split second. Please!
"..."
Dammit.
It failed.
My level is too low.
*
The situation unfolded at incredible speed in a fraction of a second.
The White Lion appeared behind Dalstream. My Superconduction had hit, but it failed to cause an electric shock.
And in the monster's left hand were two scrolls.
One was for himself, and the other was for Dalstream.
He was going to take the professor to his hideout and kill him.
"...!"
Aimus and Back Attack had fought well until now, but they couldn't keep up here.
They both looked stunned by the sudden ambush.
It couldn't be helped. This was the gap between the mid-floors and the Deep Layer.
But then.
'Dalstream.'
The Archmage's skill was far greater than I had ever imagined.
I wasn't the one protecting him.
Dalstream was the one protecting me.
'Superconduction.'
As if he'd had the exact same thought as me, Dalstream had also cast the spell preemptively behind me.
Naturally, it missed.
But just before the White Lion's scroll could touch the back of Dalstream's neck...
"Superconduction."
With a near-miraculous movement, the old professor twisted his wand ninety degrees and struck the White Lion.
It happened in the blink of an eye.
KRAAANG!
A roar-like scream erupted from the monster. The Deep Layer mage's Superconduction was incomparably more powerful than mine, and the electrocuted White Lion staggered.
It was so unbelievable I couldn't trust my own eyes.
Was that possible without the Hourglass gimmick?
No, wait. Setting everything else aside for a moment...
'Where did the cooldown for Superconduction go?'
I recalled stories I'd heard ever since I was possessed.
That among wizards, masters with immense talent could sometimes, in moments of extreme concentration, unconsciously ignore a spell's cooldown.
Did that mean people like that existed even before I was possessed?
It was a talent one couldn't control, a miracle born from the absolute limit of a wizard's concentration.
This was the first time I'd seen it for real.
Not an Hourglass fake-out, but the real thing.
'High-Speed Casting.'
He was long past his prime and retired from adventuring, but at this crucial moment, the vast experience and incredible wisdom of a master at his peak had turned the tables.
Flutter, flutter.
The two scrolls the monster dropped flew into the air.
And I...
*
In the game, when you kill a Lord of the Magic Tower, they disappear, leaving an Ethereal Fragment on the ground.
The player must then spend Action Points to destroy that fragment.
If you don't, the Lord of the Magic Tower will return from the fragment.
But if you destroy it, they can't come back. And the person who destroys the fragment...
[Your turn. Time remaining: 60 seconds]
[Action Points: ■■]
...gets the special ability, Surge of Carnage.
I was about to flip the Hourglass anyway, but thanks to Dalstream beating him down on his own, things just got a little easier.
Now, it's time for me to play my last card.
The one I had Back Attack bring me.
Let's end this.
White Lion.