Chapter 8: The Exit Room (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 8: The Exit Room (2)
The scene was like an inverted carpet bombing. Four bolts of fire shot up to the ceiling, one after another, and exploded on impact.
Flaming spiderwebs and splinters from the rotten wooden planks rained down.
The downpour looked like a waterfall of fire.
“What in the world…”
“How did he fire four at once…”
“Am I the only one who didn't hear an incantation?”
The shocking scene left even the three dwarf party members frozen for a moment.
“And that destructive power is insane!”
Of course it is. My level might be a bit lower than theirs, but I’ve poured all my points into Wisdom.
In terms of pure damage output, I can hold my own even on the second floor.
And I just landed four shots at once…
“Gaaaaaaak!”
The Venomic Spider shrieked as it fell.
Not to be outdone by its scream, I yelled at the top of my lungs.
“Everyone, snap out of it!”
When the Venomic Spider takes a massive hit that wipes out over a third of its health in one go, it falls from the ceiling.
From experience, I knew we had to pour on the damage during this window to have a good chance of winning.
This was no time to be standing around gawking!
Fwing!
Surprisingly, the first to react was Yernil.
That talented kid intercepted the falling spider mid-air with an arrow. Her accuracy was certainly worthy of applause, but…
It’s like a toothpick.
A goblin bow and arrow couldn’t deal any significant damage to a Venomic Spider.
“Yernil, you don’t have to fight. Just wait over there.”
I pointed her toward the oak barrel.
Now on the floor, the spider was thrashing about, letting out a monstrous screech.
Right in the middle of the exit room floor.
The flames on the monster’s body began to spread in all directions.
“Priest!”
I shouted to the priest as well.
“Magic barrier!”
“Ah, right away.”
Now it was the dwarf and the beastman’s turn.
“Charge as soon as the barrier is up! Before it recovers!”
“Rookie! Don’t give me orders! I know what to do!” the beastman snapped, his pride clearly wounded.
“Beneath the Goddess’s palm!”
The priest’s incantation rang out.
A bluish barrier enveloped all of us.
“He’s got a bit of a temper, this one.”
The dwarf gestured to the beastman with a grin, then hoisted his axe and charged.
The beastman’s body turned to mist and passed through the flames—the Leap Ambush skill.
Seeing this, a motivated Yernil started to run for the oak barrel.
“Wait!”
I quickly grabbed her.
The fire hadn’t spread to the barrel’s side yet, so the direct path was still thick with spiderwebs.
“But the barrier!”
Yernil jumped up and down, pointing at her own body.
She was in such a rush that she was communicating in single words like a five-year-old, but I understood what she meant.
I have to get through the webs while the barrier is up, right? If I miss this timing, the barrier will disappear, right?
But Yernil, that barrier protects against burns, not spiderwebs.
So…
“Step on this, Yernil!”
I hurled my backpack right onto the webs, halfway between Yernil and the oak barrel.
A perfect stepping stone.
Thud!
Yernil leaped like a deer, using the backpack to vault over. I immediately switched wands to the fanatic’s.
“Move with an unseen hand.”
With psychokinesis, I lifted the backpack that had served its purpose. It was my most valuable possession right now; I couldn’t just leave it in the flames.
However.
As expected, it won’t come loose.
Dozens of strands of webbing from the floor stuck to the backpack, stretching like a cheese stick.
But that was fine. All I had to do was keep pulling with my telekinetic grip. Once the fire spread, the strands would snap like melting cheese.
That was taken care of…
Now I need to focus on them.
The dwarf and the beastman were beating the spider in a steady rhythm.
It was about time.
Of course, there was no health bar like in the game, so I didn’t know the spider’s exact remaining HP, but I could make a rough guess.
Crack!
The beastman’s severing skill sent one of the spider’s largest legs flying.
“It’s gonna blow!”
At the same time, the fluorescent poison sac on the spider’s underbelly began to swell.
“Shield of the Constellation!”
As if on cue, the priest summoned a shield in front of the dwarf and the beastman. The two of them pressed themselves against it and crouched down.
So the dwarf party knew about this pattern.
When the Venomic Spider’s health drops below 30%, it triggers its poison sac explosion.
That was the standard way to deal with it, but there was a better method.
“Ice Lance!”
The contents of the poison sac were liquid. An ice lance would freeze it solid.
Of course, an exit boss has a high enough level to resist the frozen status effect, but right now, it was on fire, surrounded, and getting beaten to a pulp. Its resistance would be penalized.
“Kiiiieeeek!”
A strange groan shuddered through the convulsing monster.
White frost formed on the poison sac where the ice had struck. It stopped swelling and began to shrink.
It worked!
“It’s not going to explode! Come on out!”
The priest’s eyes went wide, apparently unaware of this method.
And I…
“I said get out here!”
Fuck, this is so frustrating.
The poison sac isn’t going to explode, you crazy bastards!
“But…”
The beastman and the dwarf were still hesitating behind the shield. They’d never been in this situation before, so they couldn’t be sure if the sac would explode or not.
This was driving me insane.
If this were a turn-based battle where I controlled everyone, it would have been over by now.
Give it any more time, and the spider would shoot a web to the ceiling and escape.
Letting it get away would be a pain.
[Turn-Based Hourglass Cooldown: 14 seconds]
The hourglass still had 14 seconds left.
The psychokinesis wand was busy with my backpack. Ice Lance was on cooldown. Should I switch it out and use Fireball? No, if the spider tries to escape with a web, I’ll need Fireball to burn the strand and make it fall. Better to save it. What about Lightning Shock? What if it escapes while I’m switching wands?
This was so damn frustrating.
“I told you the poison sac won’t explode! Attack! Just do it!”
And then someone did. Yernil.
Thwip! A toothpick-like goblin arrow flew out and lodged itself in the spider’s side.
“Not you, Yernil!”
“Ah! I’m sorry!”
No, there’s nothing to be sorry about.
Anyway, that dwarf and beastman… you bastards are slower than rush hour traffic!
“Get out there and hit it, please!”
“Hyaah!”
As if he’d heard my internal cursing, the dwarf finally mustered his courage and charged out.
The way he raised his axe reminded me of a skill I knew.
A Tier 2 Axe Skill. Wood Splitter.
CRACK!
What split wasn’t firewood, but a chitinous shell.
A small groan escaped the monstrous spider.
Followed by the sound of crushed tissue and exoskeleton.
Bodily fluids spurted out, and its legs went limp.
“We…”
The dwarf’s face brightened.
“We got it! It’s over!”
…Hearing him say that, it was clear he didn’t know much about this spider.
*
“Wh-what is that! Look over there!”
The beastman, who had been approaching the spider’s corpse, suddenly pointed at the ceiling and shouted.
As a feline beastman, he had Darkvision as a racial trait. He had witnessed the scene unfolding in the dark shadows high above.
“What is it?”
The dwarf couldn’t see it.
“What’s there?”
The human priest couldn’t see it either.
Of course, being human, I couldn’t see it with my own eyes, but I knew what it was.
Venomic Spider boss fight, Phase 2.
Hundreds of egg sacs must be hatching, unleashing a flood of spiderlings.
But don’t worry. Besides the beastman, there was one other person who could perceive it.
The genius of sound mapping.
The expert toothpick launcher.
“Ugh, uhhh…”
Yernil was trembling, horrified by the terrible sight unfolding on the ceiling.
“Yernil! Roll the oak barrel over here! With all your might!”
Behind her was the barrel filled with explosives.
I put you there so you could use it for this very moment.
“Hnngh!”
Yernil quickly tipped the barrel over and gave it a powerful shove.
By now, the fire on the floor had burned through all the webs and was dying down on its own. The barrel rolled across the soot-and-ash-covered ground and came to a stop…
“You want me to throw this?”
…at the dwarf’s feet.
“Yes!”
“But I don’t know the location.”
The dwarf said, heaving the barrel onto his shoulder.
“Over there, over there!”
The beastman jumped up and down, pointing frantically at the ceiling.
“I can’t tell just from that…”
“Priest! Cast Weapon Light on Yernil!”
“That it may shine even in the darkness.”
The priest quickly recited the incantation. Yernil’s arrowhead began to glow brightly. She understood exactly what I wanted her to do.
“Show him the direction!”
The glowing goblin arrow flew toward the ceiling.
The dwarf tracked its trajectory and swung his arm like a shot-putter.
“Hyaah!”
The arrow flew toward the swarm of spiders gathering in front of the egg sacs.
The oak barrel followed the arrow.
I aimed my Fireball wand in that direction.
[It is your turn.]
[Action Points: ■■■■]
Time for a little cheat.
I wasn’t a genius archer like Yernil who could intercept things in mid-air.
“Fireball.”
“Fireball.”
“Fireball.”
Making minute adjustments to my aim, I fired just three shots this time.
*
After the massive explosion, the charred corpses of the spiderlings and fragments of the oak barrel rained down like volcanic ash.
“No incantation and high-speed casting again…”
The priest wore a dazed expression.
“A success.”
The well-cooked corpse of a spiderling crunched like a cracker under the dwarf’s boot.
I retrieved the backpack I had barely managed to rescue with psychokinesis during the battle and slung it over my shoulder.
Ugh, so frustrating. It was easy, but so frustrating!
I was hit by two conflicting feelings at once.
In the game, beating a boss with a slave party was a massive pain in the ass, but doing it with an experienced party was definitely easier.
The frustrating part?
These guys are terrible at listening!
I understood, of course. If I were the dwarf or the beastman, I wouldn’t have listened to orders from a slave wizard either.
But in the game, I could comfortably control everyone in a turn-based system. Being in reality, where I could only move my own body, was honestly infuriating.
When the dwarf and the beastman were cowering behind that shield, I really wanted to smack them on the back of the head.
If the spider had gotten back to the ceiling, who knows how this fight would have turned out. It would have hidden, healed up, and hatched its egg sacs, you idiots.
“Hey, rookie, what the hell are you?”
The beastman, oblivious to my inner turmoil, was thoroughly impressed.
“How did you stop the poison sac from exploding?”
“If you stick an Ice Lance in the poison sac, it freezes and won’t explode.”
“I thought you were shooting magic at it to make it explode and kill us all!”
“Ah. I didn’t think of that. If I had, the gate would have been all ours.”
The beastman raised both hands in response to my joke.
“Ha. You got me there.”
His expression softened considerably as he patted my shoulder.
“Sorry for yelling earlier. A guy like you has earned the right to give orders.”
“Honestly, I’m truly impressed.”
The dwarf ran over with a mesmerized look and pulled me into a sudden hug.
“Who in the world are you?”
I just gave a bitter smile.
I didn’t know who I was either.
“Just a slave from a magic university.”
“Hah, don’t want to talk about it, eh? I get it. Everyone’s got a story.”
My story was clicking the ‘New Game’ button while scratching my thigh in my underwear.
“Hey, look at this!”
The beastman rogue pulled a magic stone from the Venomic Spider’s corpse and held it up high.
An E-Grade stone, the size of his palm.
“We’ll add the proceeds from this to the 9,500 gold and give you your 40% share.”
The dwarf said, pocketing the magic stone.
“Thank you.”
“Still, I can’t believe we actually beat it without anyone dying.”
He said it as if it were a miracle.
“To be honest, I only agreed to that contract because I figured you two would die.”
“…”
Yernil’s face went pale, but I had more or less expected it.
The beastman and the priest had probably considered it as well.
Our contract stated that we would ‘not harm each other,’ not that we would ‘protect each other.’ They had no obligation to protect us from the exit boss.
The chances of a slave wizard and archer, who couldn’t even afford a proper set of armor, dying in the chaos of battle were quite high. That was probably one of the reasons they had accepted my ridiculous, exorbitant fee.
“Did you calculate that in when you named such a high price?” the dwarf asked, smacking his lips.
“I took it into consideration.”
And it followed that we would have to protect ourselves.
Frankly, I was surprised the priest had even bothered to cast a magic barrier on us.
I had expected to be completely ignored after my initial Fireballs.
“Still, I believe we were worth the money.”
“Aye, that you were. But it’s not over yet.”
“I know.”
“What do you mean, not over? We’ve reached the gate, haven’t we? Pay up.”
At the beastman’s words, the priest explained why it wasn’t over.
“Payment will be settled in town.”
Yernil’s eyes widened as she realized something was wrong.
“In… town?”
Weren’t the three of them the only ones who could return to town right now?
“The terms of the contract were for our party to ‘pass through the exit gate.’ Until then, the contract is not fulfilled,” the priest stated, driving the point home.
“B-but the exit gate is right here! You just have to walk through it, right?”
“That is correct. However, a contract must be honored precisely. The contract is fulfilled only when all members of our party arrive in town. Payment will be made there.”
“What if… what if we can’t make it back to town?”
“If either party is wiped out, the contract becomes void.”
“…”
Yernil’s mouth fell open as if she’d been tricked.
“Y-you made a contract with us with that in mind…!”
“I took it into consideration,” the dwarf said, shrugging at me.
The chances of a two-person party of third-rate slaves escaping the labyrinth on their own? Close to zero.
At the dwarf’s cunning, Yernil covered her mouth.
“Caleb, did you know?” she asked, turning to me this time.
“Yes.”
“Really!?”
“It was obvious.”
Oh, you naive Yernil.
Did you really think earning 10,000 gold would be that easy?
There was no way we could get paid here.
Why?
Because adventurers who carry 10,000 gold on them are rare in the first place. Yernil, having no sense of their financial situation, probably thought they could pay us on the spot.
This was a common and cruel rule for high-value contracts made inside the labyrinth.
Payment is naturally settled in town.
There is no reward for those who don’t return.
But conversely, this ‘survival risk’ is also factored into the price, which is why service fees inside the labyrinth can skyrocket to such abnormal levels.
“Ha. So that’s how it is?”
The beastman rogue, who seemed as naive as Yernil, figured out the situation and grinned.
The fact that he didn’t know this meant he was a labyrinth novice too.
“I was the one who pushed for it, but I was honestly surprised when our cheapskate here snapped up the 9,500 gold offer. So there was a reason, huh?”
The beastman asked, gesturing to the dwarf with his chin.
“I’m just managing the party’s finances diligently!” the dwarf protested. The beastman clapped my shoulder.
“Rookie. Make sure you get back to town alive and collect your money.”
“I will.”
“Losing the money stings, of course, but losing a talent like you would be a bigger waste. Come back and make sure you win this battle of wits against our dwarf.”
“You can bet on me.”
“He even jokes like I do. I really like this kid.”
The beastman ruffled my hair playfully.
“Shall we be on our way, then?”
The priest gestured toward the exit gate.
Beyond it lay the town.
Not for us, though.
“Wait a moment.”
I stopped the three of them.
I still had something to deal with.
“This backpack. It belongs to your colleague. Mr. Avison.”