Chapter Text
Chapter 4 Raid Boss
When monsters attacked, they would target “the one they wanted to hit the most”. This could be expressed as a numeric value, called Hate. Causing more damage, healing HP, buffing, debuffing or using taunting-type skills would increase Hate. When a player was hit by a monster, it would “resolve” the matter and that monster’s Hate for the player would decrease. Because Hate values fluctuated often during a battle, tanks had to pay close attention to monster Hate values, lest the backliners take a hit.
Harry could serve as a tank, not because he knew how to handle all those things, but simply because MOBs seemed to instinctually hate him. He couldn’t partner up with Bukubukuchagama for this very reason, since she couldn’t do her job as a tank whenever he was present.
As such, Harry was the one on the receiving end of the attacks of the massive imp horde that had appeared out of nowhere, while the others tried to desperately help him. There were too many of them however, so Harry was practically fending them off by himself, while the other focused on their own defense.
“Shit! What happened to our pre-made teams?” Bellriver exclaimed angrily as he fought against the imps that were attacking them. Being a Magic Knight, he wasn’t completely specialized on close combat, but he ended up at the front for lack of better options.
“Shitty devs!” Amanomahitotsu cried for the tenth time, as he tried to support Bellriver on the front. Still, since he had job-classes as a crafter, he wasn’t completely combat-oriented so there was only so much the giant Crab-like heteromorph could do.
The NPC that had arrived with them hadn’t lasted long, dying since it didn’t receive proper guidance. No one here had any experience leading mercenary NPCs after all, so it wasn’t supposed to come with them and ended up dying quickly.
Actually, scratch that, this team wasn’t supposed to be conformed this way at all.
“Take some distance; I’ll use a wide-ranged attack!” Harry warned to those closest to him, waiting for them to fall back before exclaiming “[Wabbajack]!”
The area around him was illuminated by a vivid orange color, engulfing a great part of the army of imps that were surrounding him. The creatures that had been in the affected area were turned into harmless, skittish rodents, scattering away unassumingly. The only downside to this spell was that it also restored a great quantity of their HP, as well as duplicated their original number.
Regardless, they were so weak they could handle them without issues now, along with the imps that had been out of Harry’s area-attack, so the improvised battle finished in a relatively short time.
Amanomahitotsu, the heteromorphic crab-like monster, clacked his pincers a couple of times while looking around in a worried manner, but couldn’t speak since the others beat him to it.
“What happened? Why were we separated?” Genjiro muttered apprehensively, claws extending and retreating in quick succession as if in nervousness. He was a Worgen, which was basically a huge beast that looked like an odd mix between a wolfman and a dragon, a standing large canine that had scales instead of fur covering his skin. His job classes were spread as well, being a druid as well as a cleric.
“It’s obvious this dungeon wasn’t going to let us decide how to even our forces. There’s nothing we can do to change that however, so how should we proceed?” Ancient One spoke much more calmly, being one of the more experienced players on the group. His classes were also mixed up however, being a monk and a bard at the same time.
It seemed this group was solely composed of the ‘Others’ category, since none of them were specialized on any role at all.
But they would have to work this way, so Harry mentally hoped they wouldn’t die and spoke up.
“We will need to work with those roles, even if we may not be experts. Since all of us have a varied set of skills, we can change places as needed with one another… at least until we clear the dungeon and meet with the others in the Raid Boss room. Don’t worry, this is just a temporal hindrance,” Harry took the lead, successfully calming them.
After discussing back and forth for a short moment, the new formation ended up like this:
Harry would serve as Seeker and Tank at the same time, so he would be on the lead. He hoped his sharp senses would be enough to spot any approaching enemies, and his job was to distract the enemy and receive their attacks while the others eliminated them.
Bellriver along with Amanomahitotsu would be the physical attackers, coming to Harry’s support once the enemy was within range.
Genjiro would serve as Magical attacker and Healer, and was the one they needed to protect at any cost.
Ancient One would alternate between Physical and Magical attacks as needed, and would be Genjiro’s guard.
They were short one member since the NPC had died, but there was nothing they could do about that now.
Taking their new assigned places among the group, Harry slowly began to move forward, expanding his senses to try to find anything unusual.
Completely unexpected to the Tomb they had entered, this floor seemed to be composed solely of lava. Harry was happy about this fact, since he had previous experience on dealing with the environment and fire-based creatures, thanks to the dungeon he had conquered back then.
“It seems there’s no secret doors,” Harry determined after a while.
“Then I guess we have to go forward… or do we?” Genjiro said insecurely, head moving in all directions as if expecting an ambush.
“We ought to move on. It would be bad if we were the last to arrive at our destination,” Ancient One directed, making a head motion at Harry.
He nodded in response before turning around, starting to guide them towards the only path available. On normal circumstances, the magic casters would have buffed up the team, but since this was not the pre-made organization, doing so now would end up as a waste of mana. It would be better to keep those until they encountered the Raid Boss along with the other teams.
“Then, we’ll go with the standard lineup. Stay behind me at all times, I’ll be looking out for traps as well” Harry instructed to his team, to which they responded with variations of “We’re counting on you.”
After receiving acknowledgement from the others, Harry slowly moved towards the front, before immediately falling back. Something huge had slid out of the river of lava that was at their left, some sort of lava slime.
It was closely followed by smaller slimes, which were starting to surround them.
As a Tank, it was Harry’s job to avoid that, so he stepped forward and started to slash them with his spear, while firing up spells towards the ones that were far away. Without bludgeoning weapons on the team however, it was difficult to completely defeat them.
Harry was seemingly easier to hate than the others, so the attack was concentrated on him while his team helped with the extermination of slimes. Harry endured it without much issue however, since his defense was unnaturally high, something Bukubukuchagama always told him was ‘cheating’.
She had continuously asked him how did he manage to improve his defense so much without sacrificing his attack power, but Harry really didn’t know how to answer her, and ended up avoiding the topic like the plague.
It didn’t help matters that Harry’s HP was also considerably larger than normal, being out of the measurable scale.
The creatures only stopped coming once the largest slime was defeated, so it took much longer than with the imps. Still, all things considered, it was a good result since none of them were too heavily damaged. For now, Harry’s job as Tank had proven to be sufficient.
Their victory was short however, since Harry could see something crawling towards them in the distance.
“[Discern Enemy]!” Harry casted his spell to gather information about monster’s level, shouting “Level 83!” once he could see it more clearly.
“Something of that level should be fine.” Bellriver muttered with relief, preparing to fight the moment that thing —which resembled some sort of hydra— came close enough.
“Oraaaaaa!” was the war-cry of Amanomahitotsu as he joined Bellriver on the front, launching attacks while the others casted offensive magic as needed. Harry took a purely defensive role, intercepting the attacks of the enemy so they didn’t reach his teammates.
Given that the creature was merely level 83, there was no need to use their more powerful skills, which had limited uses per day. They could finish this battle easily with skills that refreshed after a short rest.
“It seems we didn’t take much damage, so what should we do, Genjiro?” Ancient One asked to the healer of the improvised team once the battle was over.
“Hm… well, something of this level should regenerate by itself, so let’s move on” the male answered after a careful evaluation of the team’s HP, excluding Harry since his was still out of the charts.
Meanwhile, Amanomahitotsu was picking up the gold and data crystals that had dropped after wiping out the monsters, taking it into the inventory before lifting his arm to wipe his forehead, as if cleaning up sweat.
“All done here,” the crafter said happily, which made Harry nod at him before addressing the others.
“Then, let’s advance. [Extend Magic - Bless of Titania]. [Extend Magic - Lead of Yatagarasu].”Harry casted both spells on quick succession, before any more enemies could interfere.
A tiny fairy appeared in front of them. She wore a crown, yet was only the height of a little finger. She flapped her butterfly wings, enveloping her in a sphere of light, and floated at the head of the group.
The next spell created a three-legged crow. Unlike normal crows, it exuded a stern majesty. It flapped its wings, and flew to the head of the formation as well, beside the little glowing ball.
The Yatagarasu guided players along the shortest path to the heart of the dungeon, while the fairy queen beside him would take them along the least dangerous path.
They would decide which to follow depending on the resource expenditures, traps and monsters encountered along the way. However, neither of these spells indicated hidden routes. In addition, there were magical traps which were designed to confuse spells like these, so they had to stay on guard.
“Huh, to think you actually knew two 9th-tier divinations. You really have a big arsenal eh? I’m pretty envious,” Ancient One said playfully, which made Harry grin at him.
“I’ll let you know if I get my hands on any items that help expand the spell-arsenal,” Harry replied, knowing that the spell casters were supposed to have a limited capacity of spells that they could learn.
He couldn’t even imagine how his life would be if he were limited to only 300 spells, so Harry respected them a lot.
“Please do, I’ll buy it for the right price!”
The whole group chuckled a little before following Harry’s lead once more, stopping every time the path divided to discuss which creature they should follow. If this was not the first time they had seen this dungeon, they could probably go straight to the heart without further ado. However, they knew nothing of this place, so they had to keep an eye out for traps as they moved, choosing which path to follow after careful consideration.
“…What if we don’t meet up with the others? If each floor actually has a different Raid Boss, we would have to defeat it by ourselves,” Genjiro whispered after a while, breaking the silence.
“Indeed, I think the developers would be capable of that.”
“They’re the shitty devs, after all. Why would they let you clear a dungeon you’d never seen before?”
As if on cue, Harry hear the familiar bell that signaled he was receiving a [Message].
“Yo~ free to talk?” Momonga said lightly, which meant that his team was most likely doing fine. The Overlord’s team actually got to stay as it was designed then?
“Yeah. Well, we’ve finished fighting, so it should be all right,” Harry replied, stopping just before reaching a huge, cave-like entrance. The others moved until the team formed a U shape, wanting to cover all sides in case of an ambush.
“How are you over there? We’re moving through a tomb now,” the overlord explained, which made Harry curse heavily. It made his teammates whistle and laugh playfully, while Momonga freaked out and hurriedly asked “Wha-what happened?”
“We were teleported to some kind of lava land. Fire-type monsters have been attacking us from all sides, and the thing that ambushed us from the magma really did a number on us.”
“Really?”
Harry waited until Momonga passed on his [Message]. Their responses seemed to be something along the lines of “Ah, as expected.”
“...Do you think we could swap party members with teleportation magic?” Momonga asked worriedly, it seemed that two other teams had been mixed up at random, just like them.
“Well, I think it’s worth a try, but do you think the devs would be that nice? Since we’re on different floors, we might not be able to teleport at all. Otherwise why would they put those doors at the entrance?” Harry explained skeptically. His apparition normally could get through places were [Greater Teleportation] could not, but he couldn’t use it right now.
Even if he lied and said that his apparition was the Yggdrasil’s equivalent, since there were other members that knew how to use [Greater Teleportation], it would be odd that they couldn’t do it but Harry did. His hands were tied on that aspect, so they would have to made do.
“Then how are you guys over there? Can you break through?” Momonga insisted. Since the Guild had come at his insistence, he was probably feeling guilty all over for this unexpected outcome.
“Right now, we should be able to handle it,” Harry reassured calmly, sounding more confident than how he truly felt.
“Ahh… I see. Got it, good luck guys.” Since there was nothing they could do to fix the current situation, Momonga reluctantly accepted Harry’s words as true, although his voice still sounded tinged with guilt.
“You too,” Harry said lightly before finishing the [Message].
Harry then tried contacting the other parties. After a few minutes, he learned that the dungeon they had invaded was one with five different floors — a glacier, a volcanic region, an underground lake, a forest and the tomb which Momonga and the others were presently in. In addition, the monsters in each floor were different, and it seemed the undead were only present in the tomb.
“Wow, as expected of our new Guildmaster! Not bringing specialized gear was the right choice,” Amanomahitotsu praised Momonga’s good thinking once Harry told them the current situation of the Guild, which made the others nod in agreement. They would have been screwed otherwise.
If they had simply loaded themselves with fire and holy-elemental equipment in order to take on the undead expected from this place, quite a few teams would have been exterminated.
However, because this was the first time they were raiding this unexplored dungeon, they had brought along all sorts of gear. In other words, they had the ability to adapt in response to changing situations, and thus they had a fighting chance to make it deeper into the dungeon.
“However, the shitty devs are really shitty. I won’t forget to add ‘shitty’ in front of the developers whenever I speak of them.”
“...Did you only just realize that now? Like the Longinus event, what the hell is up with that? It’s just impossible to clear!”
“Well, it seems this is the kind of Dungeon that will have a Raid Boss per floor, so let’s buff ourselves before going into that cavern,” Harry interrupted them before they could deviate out of topic. All spell casters, Harry included, did their best to buff the whole team, and only once that was done did Harry turn towards Genjiro.
“How’s your MP? How well can you heal everyone?”
“It’s fine. Actually, I’ve been healing with wands up until now.”
Even wands imbued with high-tier spells would only heal about half as much as Genjiro could if he personally cast a healing spell. Still, that was adequate for the task at hand, which was a sign that the improvised group had adapted surprisingly well.
Harry nodded before casting a tenth-tier spell, his last buffing spell, over the whole team.
“[Ultimate Armor].”
Technically, there was no need to speak when casting spells, but one’s colleagues couldn’t know what was going on if nothing was said. Therefore, magic casters announced their spell names as a sort of courtesy.
“Very well, we’re counting on you, oh great Tank.”
“I’ll do my best. Sorry in advance if the Raid Boss ends up focusing on you at times though,” Harry said sincerely to them before they all went into the suspicious-looking cavern.
After several easy battles, as they moved following their magically-created guides, Harry made the silent signal to stop.
“It’s a teleport trap. Disarm difficulty looks to be… red? Not sure about that,” Harry stated sincerely, looking interestingly at it.
A red disarm rating meant that the chances of successfully disarming the trap were very low. The most common methods of disarming traps were through the use of a skill to temporarily raise one’s success rate, using a magic item, or by casting a trap-disarming spell.
“Then, I guess it’s my turn,” Genjiro muttered, stepping closer.
However, this team had a method apart from those. It was a brute-force method that was also known as the warrior’s disarm, or a summon disarm.
As a Druid, Genjiro could summon creatures such as fairies, Ents, and pretty much any Earth-based creature. In this case, he seemed to have chosen a small, unassuming wolf.
“[Slave Sight].”
Genjiro casted his spell on the creature before sending it towards the trap. That spell was supposed to make the caster be able to see through the eyes of their summon, so it was useful to investigate what was lying ahead of them.
Genjiro let out a surprised “Woah!” as the wolf was teleported away from them due to the trap’s activation “A large chamber, filled with lava up to the knees. An imposing dragon is lying in the center of the room unaffected by the magma. I can’t see the monster’s name or level but… Ah, it died.”
For the wolf to have survived for a few seconds, instead of immediately dying, it meant that it had been teleported to a part of the floor that wasn’t covered in lava.
“...20 seconds have passed. The teleport trap’s stopped operating… which means it’s inactive for now. Wait a little longer,” Harry instructed to Genjiro, waiting a whole minute until he noticed the trap reactivating.
“Then, let’s try it again.”
Genjiro summoned another wolf, and sent it into the trap with the same spell as before. After a short while, the druid nodded and confirmed that the teleport destination was the same chamber from earlier, guarded by the same monster.
“Same place. Can we conclude that the trap only goes to one location?” Ancient One asked out loud at the whole team.
“It seems so. Judging by the description of the monster, it also seems to be a shortcut to reach the Raid Boss of this floor,” Harry replied, looking at the statue that was situated just behind the trap.
Since they had made it all the way here, it was unlikely they would find any endlessly-respawning monsters, so the team had the luxury of changing out their gear for an anti-boss loadout. That said, nobody in this group trusted the developers, so Harry kept an eye out in their surroundings while Ancient One used spells to check for secret doors nearby.
Harry didn’t have much gear to switch out, so he was the first to finish, wand in hand instead of his usual spear −which also served as a staff− as well as other defensive equipment. Then, being the one with time to spare, he contacted the other parties with a [Message].
Since [Message] was a spell that created a one-to-one conversation, it was difficult to share information with the rest of the group. While there were certain commander-type classes who had skills that allowed for simultaneous communication with many people, no one in Ainz Ooal Gown had such skills.
After speaking to everyone, it seemed that the rest of the teams had made it to their respective Raid Boss as well, but…
“How did it go, Harry? Did the other teams all make it?”
“Yes, the other four teams have reached the dungeon’s heart. They’ve all expended some resources, but they’re all in tip-top condition and ready to fight.”
A small cheer came from the group. However, beating trash mobs and the environment made up 40% of the difficulty of raiding a dungeon, while beating its boss was the other 60%. In a way, they were not even halfway through.
“Still, there are some problems. One team has already started fighting their respective boss. Judging by shared information, it seems the bosses have different abilities, appearances, and boss rooms. While ours seems to be some sort of dragon, the party in the underwater lake seems to have encountered some kind of pure white bat.”
“I see… so we can’t use information gained from people who went in first. What’s the second problem?”
“There were announcements once that team entered the boss room, and judging by the content of those announcements, the bosses get stronger in order of encounter. Which means, the team that fights their boss last is going to be also against the strongest. Momonga’s team is going to tackle that one, while Touch Me’s going to tackle the 4th, so we’re coming in 3rd.”
“I see… well, our team didn’t end up that bad, so it makes sense for us to be in the middle.” Ancient One nodded, before sighing tiredly “It would be simple enough if the bosses were even in power, but after several encounters, a strong boss might get even stronger.”
“Well, if it’s the shitty devs, they’d probably level up the boss until it’s unbeatable. ‘How many times should we make them fight before letting them win’ they’d ask with smug grins on their faces,” Genjiro muttered annoyed, shaking his head negatively.
“...And without any concrete information, we can’t formulate a battle plan,” Bellriver added, crossing his arms over his chest. The multiple mouths that covered his body were opening and closing at random intervals, seemingly in annoyance, which made for quite a scary picture.
“We’ll also need to see how much of its health we can burn off in a short time, so let us work together. Everyone ready?” Harry asked, looking at them to see their complete equipment.
The others agreed unanimously.
“Good,” Harry smiled proudly at them, even knowing the others couldn’t see expressions reflected on his face. “But also, and this is probably the most important thing, consider that we won’t be able to retreat from this fight.”
The atmosphere changed from excited to nervous immediately. They had one shot at this. They had to bet everything on the first try.
Boss battles typically took place in a separate map, and there were some boss battles which allowed players to retreat from the fight. Therefore, most players would do so if they felt things were getting dangerous. Of course, the enemy would recover all their lost HP, so it would be best not to use trump cards and the like before retreating.
“Really, they don’t want newcomers to beat this dungeon in one go,” Bellriver said before cursing the developers once more.
“Ah, there’s almost nobody who could beat this dungeon blind anyway,” Genjiro added, shrugging as if saying it couldn’t be helped.
“Just so. The deck is stacked pretty high against us. However, I feel our team can do it. Right, guys?” Ancient One cheered, which was met with approval all around.
Harry nodded, and seeing the team ready to fight, simply waited for the [Message] of the team that would go in second, so they could be the third to walk through.
And so, when the time came, Harry led the party and entered the magic circle.
They ended up in a room that resembled the very nucleus of a planet. The walls were high and curved into a dome, which made Harry sigh in relief. Since there was a roof, there probably wouldn’t be any flying monsters dropping on them.
Next, they inspected the ground beneath their feet, which was covered by a never-ending river of lava. They had changed their gear so they were fire-resistant, but even so, it would be better not to come in contact with it at all. Since the magma covered the whole surface, there was no way to know if there were any traps on it.
One could also use the super-tier spell [The Creation] to directly alter the circumstances to their advantage, but all super-tier spells had an unavoidable cooldown time whenever they were cast. Therefore, the trump card of super-tier magic could only be used when it was absolutely vital.
Having appeared over a rift that was just over the floor covered in lava, Harry and his team turned their eyes in unison, to the massive being that stood in the center of the room like a wrathful omen of doom.
It was a boss which stood nearly five meters tall, with gold scales covering the body, the dragon stood up and roared angrily at them. Judging by the form of its wings and tail, which were pointy but not overall spiky, Harry deduced it was either a lightning dragon or a fire dragon.
These creatures were known to have only one element, but since this was a Raid Boss, Harry wouldn’t be surprised if it had two or more.
Lightning began to crackle all over the walls and ceiling, while the lava at the dragon’s feet got higher as it increased its volume. All this suggested that the dragon was a wide-ranged attacker with multiple elemental attacks. Considering it was a boss monster, the oversized reptile most likely boasted a plethora of resistances, so it wasn’t the sort of creature which could be felled by an instant-death attack.
The main problem with designing boss encounters in Yggdrasil was that the players had the same skills and spells that monsters did, but during raid boss encounters, there would be 30 players facing a single monster. Even with enhanced stats, one monster would still be obliterated by sheer weight of numbers, which meant that there was no challenge at all.
As such, two main patterns of boss encounters appeared to address this issue.
The first was to meet numbers with numbers. Sometimes the boss would come with minions, or the boss arena would constantly spawn monsters. In this approach, the boss was usually not very strong. In some cases it would only have several times the HP of a player character.
Harry rather liked this kind, since it was easy to sneak in and attack the Raid Boss directly. That was how he made it when conquering his current base after all.
The other method was to send out a single boss, generated with different data from the player characters. This sort of boss typically had abilities which would give a lot of trouble to parties which encountered them for the first time, and it could use those abilities continuously.
Judging by the look of the boss, it was highly likely that it fell into the latter category.
“Oh foolish ones who challenged us at third, know the might of those who become stronger with every layer of binding removed from us,” the dragon challenged, menacing jaws opening wide as it prepared its first attack.
“Well, here we come!”
Harry leapt forth, running away from his team as he circled around the boss, using the very narrow canal close to the walls that was the only place not covered by lava yet. He needed to be careful not to touch the walls however; he suspected the electrical lightning clacking over them would end up paralyzing the victim.
Alternating between attacking and moving, Harry easily attracted its attention. As a Tank, he couldn’t let the boss’ first strike hit anyone but himself.
The Dragon opened its huge mouth, a runic circle forming just in front of its jaws. That same circle was replicated just below Harry’s feet, which made him curse internally.
Since the circle moved along with him, Harry knew this was an undodgeable attack.
“[Lightning Flare].”
Those words floated in the air as it activated a unique boss skill, which didn’t exist as a spell which players could access. A burst of lightning erupted from the ground, and Harry for a moment compared it to the feeling of stepping over a grenade.
He gritted his teeth, refusing to scream out in pain. This was a ‘game’, so he couldn’t be careless on this aspect, since no one but him actually felt pain when getting damage. Instead of focusing on that, he pointed his wand at the dragon, continuing to fire up offensive spells.
Bosses with multiple unique skills were very hard to deal with. This was because there was no way of knowing what type of attack or magic would be effective. There was no time to fight the boss out by trial and error either, all they could do now was use all the tricks they had learned and hope it sufficed.
The bothersome tingling on his muscles was alleviated when Genjiro casted a healing spell over him, so Harry smirked and continued to drag the Boss’ attention.
Muffliato.
“Hey! Why are you looking away? Aren’t you underestimating me?” Harry shouted out, firing a 9th tier offensive spell that made the dragon turn its glare towards him once more.
“You who resembles me in power, why are you with the likes of them?” a grave tone asked, before the boss let out a breath of cursed green fire.
Another reason Harry liked to fight against Raid Bosses, was because he could talk with them as well. Not a single player seemed to be able to listen to them however, other than their challenging greeting, so Harry always made sure to use Muffliato while talking with them.
Maybe this was the reason it was so easy for him to accumulate Hate?
“Isn’t that obvious? I want to take over your domain!” Harry challenged, and the vertical iris of the dragon’s eyes grew even thinner in rage.
“So you wish for death. In that case, I will gladly grant it,” The dragon hissed out, extending its wings as it called forward a rain of volcanic rocks, covered in glowing lava.
The rocks fell all over the place like meteorites, which made Harry curse silently in his mind as he skillfully moved to evade them. Such a wide-ranged attack, there was no way it hadn’t targeted the others.
Bellriver and Genjiro seemed to have avoided it by [Teleporting] towards the ceiling, but Ancient One and Amanomahitotsu had received some damage.
Mentally chastising himself, Harry laughed mockingly out loud, screaming “That’s right! Focus on the small flea! I’m no threat at all, right?” as he fired another harmful spell at it.
The boss hissed out in pain before turning its body so it was completely focused on Harry once more, and breathing out poisonous smog. His teammates moved towards its back to attack from there, so he cheered mentally and continued to run, even if the poison was making his head hurt.
The Dragon noticed its breath had been mostly fruitless, and released an angry roar before striking again. For the first time in the battle, it attacked physically by swinging its massive tail at Harry, but he could react on time to evade it.
Jumping so he could land over the appendage, Harry took advantage of the physical proximity and let out a spell he wouldn’t be able to use otherwise: a tactile spell.
While most of the spells had an effective range, some spells had a range that was practically zero. These spells needed direct contact with the target to function, so only people with high levels in "spell caster" and warlike classes could use them well. It was because they were so inconvenient that they were more powerful than spells of a similar level.
Harry used an eighth-level spell he had learned [Drain Energy]. It was a spell that drained the opponent's levels and granted several benefits depending on the number of levels drained. Naturally, this spell had also been maximized.
Harry felt his strength grow marginally at the same time the Dragon let out a pained hiss. For as long as the spell were effective, the enemy’s natural resistance to magic had been greatly lowered, while Harry recovered a good amount of HP. That said, that was all this spell could do in terms of healing.
Harry’s skills were temporarily improved, and received a special benefit that would vanish in a short time. On the other hand, the Dragon had received a low level disadvantage that could not be eliminated.
This time, the Dragon backed away, having surmised that close physical battle was disadvantageous against him.
“We’re almost there guys!” Ancient One’s voice reached his ears, even if he couldn’t pinpoint his exact location.
The two frontliners advanced. Like a rubber band stretched to its limit, they snapped forth, reaching the boss in an instant.
“[Shadowbind], [Hobble].”
“[Razor Edge], [Rasetsu].”
As the words were uttered, several black blades flew through the air. Those were attacks which lowered evasion and movement speed, and now that the boss was presumably weakened, the physical attacker Bellriver slashed wildly at the boss.
Multiple slashes appeared on the boss’ body, and Harry saw the boss’ HP bar waver, thanks to his ‘Life Essence’ spell. It had taken less damage than expected, and it was this, more than anything it said, which made them think that this was really a raid boss.
“[Arm Slice], [Headshot].”
“[Rasetsu], [Slash-All].”
More words were shout as the team used their best skills, and their chained attacks mauled the boss’ body.
While they usually could speak while fighting mobs, they couldn’t have that luxury when fighting against a boss, there was simply no time to banter. However, their teamwork would break down if they didn’t indicate what they were doing, so they only shouted the names of the spells and skills they were using.
The Dragon turned away from Harry, rising on its rear legs before impaling the ground with all its weight. The action caused an earthquake, which in turn made the lava that had covered the ground flood over the whole area. Ancient One and Genjiro, being the ones with more distance from the Boss, could react on time to activate their defensive skills, but Bellriver, Amanomahitotsu and Harry were not so lucky.
“Hey! Watch your Hate! Stop attacking!” Harry screamed to his teammates, momentarily taking down his Muffliato.
“Roger!”
Harry then placed the Muffliato once more, before jumping out from his position and running towards the Dragon. He didn’t stop until he was close enough that his teammates wouldn’t be able to spot him.
Raising his wand, he used the spell that was guaranteed to cause so much Hate the Dragon wouldn’t focus on anyone else for a long while.
Crucio.
The characteristic light the curse produced was hidden by the Dragon’s huge size, not to mention that Harry’s teammates where all the way at the other side of the room, so there was no risk of getting spotted.
The Dragon roared angrily in pain, before viciously attacking him in reprisal.
Normally, Hate increased along with damage done, but Harry caused very little damage with this curse. Still, the resulting pain was much higher than the one his teammates were doing, even if they dealt more damage, so the boss once more targeted Harry and only Harry, using single-target attacks instead of those wide-area that had damaged his team so much.
“How dare you!” the Dragon repeated like a mantra, as it tried to hit him.
The two frontliners matched their movements and attacked, while the magic casters alternated between buffing, debuffing and casting harmful and defensive spells. Still, the dragon ignored them on favor of attacking Harry, as it was supposed to.
“[Poison Vines]!”
“[Penetrate Magic - Slow]!”
Genjiro and Ancient One enchanted at the same time, spells streaking toward the boss, leaving a white trail in their wake.
The battle was progressing smoothly. The vanguards suppressed the boss while the rear guards whittled it down. It felt like they were off to a good start, but they still didn’t let it go to their heads.
They continued like this until the Dragon’s HP was considerably lowered, at least low enough to start to get serious. Harry mentally sighed in relief, since the attacks coming in his direction were starting to get harder to evade, becoming much stronger and faster.
“Uwah, time to spend! Damn cash shop!”
“3000 yen! No more than 3000 yen! Those shitty devs must have done this to force people to use the cash shop!”
“Shit, I’ll have to use cash items too…”
Harry couldn’t really empathize with them. The concept of Cash Shop didn’t exist to him, since he wasn’t part of their “Real World”, so he only smirked and took out his one-use-per-week items.
Although he didn’t know what kind of cash item the frontliners had used, the boss’ health was dropping faster than before. Because of that, the boss used a new attack — raising on its rear legs and extending its wings so it covered the whole area.
“[Neptune Lightstorm].”
The hot vapors flowing formed a sphere of bluish-white energy over the boss’ head. This must be some sort of super move.
Lasers sprayed in all directions from the blue-white orb. Although most of the beams seemed to fly at random, some of them seemed to follow a specific pattern. Of course, it was impossible to tell what that pattern was on the first encounter.
Ancient One immediately ran over to Genjiro’s side, acting as shield as he was hit by a bolt of light. As expected, that attack was an electrical one, since he seemed to be temporarily paralyzed.
“[Haste]!” Genjiro shouted, targeting the frontliners.
The three vanguards, Harry included, were under a Slow debuff, which had happened because they were struck by the lasers. That being the case, Genjiro countered it with the appropriate, opposed magic.
Now able to move freely, the three of them could move around to evade most of the oncoming lasers. But just as they thought they were through it, the boss began another round of attacks.
The shrinking interval between the usage of skills was a sign that the boss was picking up the pace.
“[Venus Monsoon].”
Heavy clouds appeared above the boss’ head, blanketing the battlefield. It would seem it was going to call down acid rain.
“[Great Cyclone]!” a gigantic hurricane whirled into existence as Genjiro casted his spell, but it didn’t disperse the gathering clouds overhead the dragon.
“Shit!” the healer exclaimed, followed by a chorus of “Shitty developers!” coming from the rest of the team.
If the boss used a spell which players had access to, they would probably be able to counter it in some way. However, if it was a skill, all they could do was guess.
This time, the guess was off.
Probably a defensive spell would have worked better, but it was too late. This wasn’t the sort of opponent that would give them the luxury of a second move.
A torrential rainstorm filled everyone’s vision. At first, it seemed to be a surprisingly mild attack, but that idea was immediately discarded the moment the acid came in contact with the lava covering most of the floor.
The deafening sounds of explosions filled the whole room. It seemed that the acid had a very strong reaction when coming in contact with the lava, since the whole area ended up swallowed by one explosion after the other. It was as if suddenly the whole floor had been filled up to the brim with grenades.
The whole team cursed as they received the undodgeable attack. This might have been the sort of attack which could have been avoided if they had gotten rid of the lava, but they had no way of knowing that on the first encounter against it.
Once the attack ended, Genjiro casted healing spells on the front liners, whose health had been reduced almost by half. Harry was not included, considering his HP was larger than the others, it was better not to focus too much on him.
The boss opened its jaws and raised its head, nose pointing towards the ceiling instead of focusing on anyone of them.
Because its health was going down very fast, the delay between each attack was now very short.
Judging by the color of the spell it was enchanting, it was most likely some sort of lightning-elemental attack. If that was the case—
“Everyone! Heading up!”
There was no time to wait for their responses. Harry casted the [Greater Teleportation] spell, appearing as high as the ceiling allowed. Just as the view in his eyes shifted from the teleport—
“[Jupiter Tempest].”
—Streaks of blinding white lightning raced across the ground. A simple [Fly] spell wouldn’t have been fast enough to allow them to make it up here in time.
Normally speaking, flying up was a bad move. However, Harry had ascended because the boss’ previous attacks descended from above. He guessed that there wouldn’t be so many consecutive attacks which came down from the sky.
He was lucky.
“Going down.”
“Okay!”
The team, that had followed Harry up here, descended as one using [Fly]. After all, there was a chance that the next attack would heavily damage anyone in the air.
As they came down however, the boss flew up, using for the first time in battle its wings, and started to fly around in circular motions.
“[Great Ore of Mercury].”
It would seem the boss had buffed itself, because the cries of “So hard!” could be heard from several members of the team that had attacked with long-ranged attacks.
Harry was surprised to see that their damage output had dropped to 1/10th of normal.
“Meteoric Turtle!” Bellriver shouted, naming a boss they had defeated in the past. Harry immediately understood the meaning behind those words. The Meteoric Turtle had a move where it enhanced its defense, then took to the sky before crashing down again like the meteor it was named after, dealing a party-wiping amount of damage to everyone in the area.
The countermeasures to this move were: unbalance the boss and forcibly break its defensive stance, take to the skies and halve the damage taken, or to continuously use defensive spells or skills to endure the onslaught.
The frontliners began using their unbalancing skills, while Harry and the others coordinated with them and casted debilitating spells on the boss as well.
A prickly sensation hung in the air, and immediately after, the boss swung down to the center of the room once more, breathing fire madly as though remembering that it had forgotten to attack while its defense rose. The sense of relief that came from disrupting the boss’ previous attack was replaced by the pressure of defending against its harmful breath.
“[Lunar Gaze].”
The dragon’s eyes suddenly glowed a bright blue, and time suddenly stopped. Still, everyone here was level 90 and above, so they already had equipment and skills that could help them get out of the [Time Stop] effect.
This caused a gap on their defense however, and the Boss immediately took advantage of that by lashing at them.
The air pressure from the strikes turned into slashing shockwaves which tore through the air. It made no difference whether one was in the sky or on the ground, there was no hiding from it.
“[Wall of Jericho].” Harry, as the tank of the group, used his area-defense skill to become a wall behind which everyone could hide. Even so, that meant receiving the hit directly, so the end of his HP bar was finally reflected for the others.
It seemed he had finally reached the point where it was measurable.
Harry grinded his teeth and refused to let a single sound of pain come out. Even if his muscles were beginning to spasm lightly, and his legs were trembling somewhat, he still could move on and fight.
A game was supposed to be fun, so it wasn’t like the rest of the team could fill any pain even when hit. If anything, it was reflected only like some annoyingly persistent tingling sensation, according to his comrades.
Harry suddenly felt very envious of them.
“Genjiro… can you heal me a little?”
“Sure thing Harry!”
As he was being healed, the pain was reduced enough for him to concentrate on the enemy. Now that the boss had lost quite a bit of HP, its attack patterns were becoming more aggressive. There was a chance it might use that attack repeatedly.
In the meantime, the boss’ HP was decreasing steadily, since the frontliners had come back to attacking it. Although the boss had abnormally high HP, the attackers’ firepower was gradually overcoming it.
Suddenly, the dragon roared and laid down, like a feline that was about to jump forward. The whole team worked together to hinder it as much as possible, but they couldn’t prevent the attack’s completion on time.
Well, that was to be expected. It wasn’t like this team was ideally formed after all, so they were lacking in a lot of fields.
“[Saturn Meteor].”
The boss jumped up towards the sky, tackling the ceiling with a force so mighty Harry wouldn’t have been surprised if the whole room collapsed over them.
Instead of that however, an inky black void appeared — the void of space — which swallowed the whole ceiling without trace. Not satisfied by that, the sudden void expanded to cover the entire battlefield. It would seem that the range of this attack was as large as the previous one.
Well shit.
“[Field of Force].”
“[Sanctuary Protection].”
His teammates shouted as many defensive spells as they could. Harry couldn’t use [Wall of Jericho] two times in a row after all, since it was limited to be used only once every 36 hours.
As Genjiro put up another layer of protection, Harry tried to help them by casting yet another defensive spell. This was because they had no idea what kind of attack was coming next.
Just then, a shrill screech rang through the air, and countless meteors flew through the air at them.
The initial impact shattered their main defense, which had been further reinforced by the [Sanctuary Protection]. After that, the shockwave broke the [Field of Force] and damaged the whole team, far more than the previous attack had. Half of their previously full HP bar vanished in an instant.
However, that was the end of the attack, and the whole team was still alive. Nobody had died, and Harry still had more than enough HP left.
In this kind of formation, if the tank was fine, then they could still fight.
Genjiro did his best to heal everyone quickly, but since he wasn’t a specialized healer, there was only so much he could do. For this reason, the team started to take their healing potions, which were obviously a limited amount, so they would have to fight more carefully from now on.
If they took another attack from that Dragon, they would die. Therefore, Harry watched the boss’ movements as he made sure the target would only be himself, trying to encourage the Dragon to stop using area-wide attacks.
The frontliners stopped attacking and took defensive stances, healing their wounds and repairing their equipment with potions. This was so that they didn’t complicate the Hate management.
As if mocking their effort however, the Dragon’s whole body started to glow a dangerous red, several ribbons of magic flowing around it, symbols changing so fast it was impossible to predict how the next attack would be.
Given these special effects, there was no doubt that it was preparing for something big.
“To think you have made it this far, it appears I have underestimated you. In that case, come forth, my minions!”
The floating ribbons suddenly arranged themselves into the points of a five-pointed star, and then thrust themselves into the ground. Five monsters appeared from those places.
Level 87: Wyvern Fire Elemental
Level 87: Wyvern Water Elemental
Level 87: Wyvern Air Elemental
Level 87: Wyvern Earth Elemental
Level 90: Wyvern Star Elemental
Each of them was half the size of the boss, and they were monsters of equivalent level to Harry’s own teammates.
The six of them, including the boss, would surely crush the party into a paste.
Harry internally groaned. If the others weren’t with him, he would have been able to use magic different from that of Yggdrasil… no, no sense in thinking about that now.
He could hear his teammates either cursing the devs or laughing hysterically. They had not expected the boss to be this powerful.
Time to use Super-Tier magic.
It had a long activation time, even cheating by using ‘cash items’, so they needed to defend the caster.
Bellriver, the Magic Knight, used [Berserker soul] on the strongest Wyvern. It made the enemy enter a wild rage, increasing their attack level and allowing friendly fire, pretty much making it a killing machine that would go against anything that was alive and in its range of attack.
Since the target would be forced to attack whatever was nearest for some minutes, the team made sure to stay as far away as physically possible from the enraged creature, which had started to attack the nearest Wyvern.
Amanomahitotsu, the crafter, threw away his strongest one-time item with a pained cry, the small unassuming object hitting the Raid Boss directly.
It was a [Square of Self-Destruction]. By activating this Magic, the caster placed a complex self-destruct sequence on any person or object. Without the cancellation code, this Magic couldn’t be stopped.
While it wouldn’t kill the Dragon, it would cause a huge blow at its HP. It was hard to create however, since it needed a good amount of rare materials, so it was no wonder the crafter hadn’t wanted to give it up.
Similarly, Harry inwardly cursed his position as the Tank, but still gave his two cents, shouting out his spell [Draining shield] as he ran towards the oncoming hell.
This spell absorbed the magic the enemy used to attack him, but didn’t stop the spell from taking effect. It was like trading HP for MP in that aspect, so Harry endured their attacks the best he could.
The MOBs automatically hated him, so there was no need to attract their attention. It only worked on a maximum of two enemies however, so he made sure to stay the hell away from the Berserk one and target only the other Wyverns.
Once he felt he had gathered enough magic however, Harry smirked an activated a high tiered spell.
“[Chain Destruction]!”
He watched with glee as pure destructive energy surged through the battlefield.
The five −already somewhat damaged − Wyverns were taken down all at once. This spell dealt the same damage to all enemies by only hitting one, as if they had been stroke by a direct attack, so long the others were of the same species and didn’t differ for more than 5 levels from each other. The area of effect was only of a few kilometers, but it was enough since the battlefield was restricted to this room.
Just at this moment, the [Square of Self-Destruction] activated at its fullest, which resulted in the boss losing an alarming amount of HP.
At the same time, Amanomahitotsu ran toward the boss.
Thanks to the hate generated by [Square of Self-Destruction] the boss wouldn’t stop attacking until it hit the crafter, Amanomahitotsu, at least once. No amount of attacks Harry did would be able to deflect this much Hate, so the Giant Crab-like heteromorph accepted his fate and allowed himself to be hit.
As though to switch with him, Harry ran to the back and began to take a role as Magical attacker.
The attack the Dragon used to attack Amanomahitotsu was quite particular however. It was the first attack it had used when they first began with this battle, a runic circle forming just in front of its jaws. That same circle was replicated just below the crafter’s feet.
“[Lightning Flare].”
A burst of lightning erupted from the ground, and Harry immediately stepped forward to resume his role as Tank.
“Everyone! Kill it quickly! It’s starting its rotation again!” Harry shouted to his team. The enemy’s life force was low enough now, so there was no reason to hold back anymore.
“[Triplet Maximize Magic — Reality Slash]!”
“Push it!”
“Roger!”
This was when the boss began attacking in earnest, using its skills back to back. Was it because it was low on HP? And most importantly, could they deplete its HP fast enough? If it reached the point where the Dragon could summon another wave of Wyverns, Harry’s team would surely perish.
“How about it? Can we kill it in one shot?” Ancient One asked as he switched with Amanomahitotsu on the front line.
“We can do it! Everyone, target your healing items on Harry, we’ll use that for the kill!” Bellriver shouted out, which made the others chorus with agreeing exclamations.
Harry exhaled heavily at the nice feeling of being cured. He could feel his whole life force return to normal, so it was out of the measurable scale once more.
To be honest, Harry hated to use this skill, but they didn’t have many options right now. Maybe if his team had been strategically chosen, instead of it being formed at random, this wouldn’t have been necessary.
“Roger! Then let me begin!” Harry shouted at them before standing still just in front of the Dragon’s furious gaze. Taking in a deep breath, he mentally prepared for what was to come and exclaimed “[Sacrifice]!”
The boss hit him directly as expected, which made Harry bite his cheek until it drew out blood.
Pain, pain, pain, pain!
Harry took a huge amount of damage, even though he had an extremely high defense. At the same time, a black mist enveloped the whole battlefield.
“[Beacon of Hope]!” Harry forced himself to exclaim through gritted teeth, since he needed the others to hear it out.
This sacrificial ritual, only available for those who had job classes in Martyr, allowed for the others to attack without needing to preserve their defense.
That was because of the combination of these two spells. [Sacrifice] would make the next hit take 50% of his total HP, no matter how strong or weak the attack actually was, going through his high defense as if it didn’t exist. [Beacon of Hope] on the other hand, would protect one’s allies, so the enemy would not be able to damage them until it had lost the HP it had taken down on the previous hit.
Since Harry’s sacrifice exceeded the HP the Boss had left, they had deemed it unable to deal damage anymore.
It could still attack Harry freely however, since this only protected one’s teammates, and the magic would come undone if Harry were to die.
So he switched back, focusing solely on evasion and defense, as he let the others take the —now neutralized— attacks of the Dragon.
This strategy normally didn’t work so well, mostly because a Player wasn’t supposed to have such a large amount of HP as Harry did. It was only because he was the one using this magic, that they could act so freely now.
This way, Harry let the others do their part on taking down the boss. He could hear out a combination of their most powerful skills, as well as a specific super-tier magic.
“[Judgement of Osiris]!”
“Here I go! [Acalanatha]! [Fudo Kensaku]!”
“[Trailokyavijayarāja]!”
“[Yamāntaka]!”
“[Kundali]!”
“[Vajrayaksa]!”
The instant the attacks touched the boss, a frightening series of damage numbers that looked like they came from a multi-part attack spewed forth. Harry couldn’t help but laugh tiredly as the boss’ HP went down drastically.
And then, cracks appeared all over the boss’ body. Light flowed out from between the gaps, followed by a great explosion.
Harry’s team froze for a moment, before the overflowing joy came forward as random exclamations and cheers.
An orb floated in the place where the boss used to be. It didn’t look like a data crystal, nor did it resemble an artifact. They probably had to take it and place it on another part of this dungeon.
Harry laid his back over the walls of the room, which weren’t electrified anymore. He felt tired as shit, and his body trembled due to the attacks it had endured. His magic was about to be exhausted as well, so all he wanted to do was rest.
“Come on Harry, the boss dropped an item.” Genjiro called for him happily, which made Harry glare at him, even knowing that the other couldn’t see his expression.
“In that case, the two attackers should—” Harry began to say tiredly, not wanting to move in the next week or so.
“Harry, it’s not like that,” Ancient One interrupted him, “Things ended up like this because we could use your sacrificial skill. If you weren’t here, even if everyone played their part, we probably wouldn’t have been able to do it!”
Something along the lines of “What he said!” came from Bellriver’s direction.
“Harry, you protected us in many ways, didn’t you? It’s not just the front liners who shone in this fight, don’t you agree?” Amanomahitotsu finished, looking expectantly at him, before adding, “Come on, go take it Harry. We should hurry up and meet with the others, right?”
This was supposed to be an honor, as a way to recognize his contribution in their victory. Harry knew that, they were doing it with the best intention at heart, so he swallowed his protests with nothing but a small sigh.
“…Thank you, everyone. Then, don’t mind if I do!” Harry forced himself to exclaim as happily as he could muster, slowly moving away from the wall that had helped support his weight.
Shit it hurts, each step hurts, fuck I finished all my HP potions… and I don’t have enough magic to heal myself. Merlin, let this end—
With that mental mantra in mind, Harry reached out for the floating sphere and touched it.
In that instant, the world blacked out.
By the time he could see again, he was in a wide-open space, completely different from before. They seemed to be in a slightly-elevated place, at the top of a flight of stone steps. The ruins were located within a sprawling expanse of wilderness, but there seemed to be something glowing in the sky which cast enough light so they could see at least from 200 to 300 meters away.
The other teams were here as well, the only one missing was Momonga’s group.
Harry cursed heavily, and this time, instead of being playfully chastised by his teammates, the others followed swift with an even more colorful vocabulary.
You got to be bloody kidding me! Fuck, it hurts!
“How much longer?!” Harry heard Punitto Moe exclaim anxiously from somewhere at his left. Harry deflected an oncoming attack and fell back, so he could now see the other briefly. The Death Vine strategist seemed to be currently speaking through [Message] so Harry guessed he was talking with Momonga’s group.
“Could you hurry it up a little? Three teams have already beaten their bosses— ah, wait, Harry’s group just arrived, ok, then we all just moved on to the sixth floor— shit!”
Punitto Moe was almost struck by one of the enemies, but Touch Me had helped deflect it on the last moment.
“We ran into a constantly-respawning horde of monsters and are currently fighting. We might have to fight until everyone wins and reaches the 6th floor.”
That was most likely the case.
As soon as Harry’s group arrived, they had been forced to fight against the oncoming, non-ending horde of enemies.
Needless to say, this was a dire situation for the teleported parties. Being forced to fight even more monsters after expending their MP and limited-use skills against the boss was an arduous task.
The proper way to clear this dungeon was probably to learn which bosses would get stronger, and in which order. Then, the parties would simultaneously enter their boss fights and beat them at the same time.
But since they had cleared it on the first attempt, no one here had known that.
Curses against the shitty developers ran everywhere, but Harry stopped paying attention to his teammates.
Please hurry! Shit, it hurts!
Even if fighting under pain wasn’t exactly new for Harry, in this world he had never had the need to do so. His body was constantly failing, the reflexes he had grown accustomed to were not fast enough to repel all of the oncoming attacks, which only caused even more pain as his HP was continuously lowered.
Had he been alone, he would have been able to place a defensive ward between him and the never ending wave of enemies, but this was not an Yggdrasil spell, so he couldn’t use it now.
He didn’t know for how long he fought, nor how many times he cursed pretty much everything that came to mind, until the enemies suddenly halted and vanished, as if the battlefield had been nothing more than a cruel joke.
The sound of relieved exclamations came from everywhere around him. Looking around, he saw his guildmates cheering loudly at Momonga’s team arrival, who seemed to have appeared just now.
“Yoshaaaa! Damn we’re good, beating an unknown dungeon in one try! How about that, you shitty devs?!”
“If you want to take a toilet break, you’d better go now! Don’t miss out on what happens next!”
Momonga and the others descended the stairs, bathed in everyone’s praise. These were their accolades for beating the strongest boss, since his team had been the last to begin their fight. Harry simply laughed weakly, using his spear like an improvised cane to support his weight.
“Then, Momonga-san. Put that in there,” Touch Me pointed towards a stone plaque. There were four orbs like the one Momonga was holding, and one empty slot.
The one Harry had touched had disappeared from his hands and appeared over there automatically, but it seemed like the last one needed to be added manually.
Momonga headed straight for the plaque, and slotted his orb into the final depression. The orb fit into the indentation as though it had been sucked in, and then all the orbs glowed gently.
A scroll descended from the sky, landing beside Momonga. In its place, the plaque vanished, replaced by a richly elaborated throne.
There was no doubt that the scroll was the ownership deed, which meant that the throne was some sort of artifact. Usually, the dungeon reward was one or the other, but this seemed like an exceptional case. An artifact of this class ought to be pretty useful, since even if they didn’t like it, they could probably still sell it for a good amount.
Harry, who had been smiling tiredly while looking at the scene, suddenly froze, closing his eyes in a dreadful, tired expression. He was glad the others couldn’t see it.
A mental question had arrived to him... It seemed he could only belong to one dungeon.
“Huh? Why is the scroll not opening?” Momonga questioned in a worried tone.
Do you hearby renounce to your Property rights of the Guild Base: Inferno Volcano?
Harry sighed, looking pensively at the floor.
He used that dungeon for his tests, for his investigations regarding things his guild mates couldn’t know. He needed that personal, safe place….
But, judging by Momonga’s question, it seemed that his Guild wouldn’t be able to claim a base if he didn’t give up his.
Making up his mind, he gave the mental command to agree with his Dungeon’s dissolution.
“Oh! It opened. Shitty devs, were they trying to be dramatic or something?”
“It’s nothing new since the shitty devs are the shitty devs. You know, really shitty!”
This is fine, Harry thought with a small smile, looking at his Guildmates’ antics.
Besides, this place was big enough; he surely would be able to secure a small room for his own or something.
“Congratulations! For conquering the Great Tomb of Nazarick, you have earned the ownership rights to the Guild Homebase: Great Tomb of Nazarick,” a calm male voice resounded when Momonga opened the scroll, allowing everyone to see the contents of the title deed.
There was a cry of surprise as they looked through the data on the guild territories and income.
“This...! We can make up to 2750 levels of NPCs!”
“Ehh? Really? It’s true!”
“Why is it so high?!”
There were only nine places in the game which offered more NPC levels, at 3000. Since this place was almost on par with those, it was no wonder they were surprised.
They read through the guild home base details again, and the person who had first discovered it exclaimed again.
“The base amount is 2250, with a bonus of 500… has anyone heard of anything like this before?”
Everyone shook their heads.
“Could it be that if you successfully beat a guild home base location in one shot, your maximum NPC levels increase?” Harry said lightly, he remembered having read something like that before, somewhere...
Silence fell across the group in an instant, and then someone shouted angrily:
“Uooooohhh! You shitty developers! As though anyone could do that!”
“Damn shitty devs!”
“Is that what you mean by seeking knowledge with no fear of death, you bastards?!”
The people who were venting their emotions were now laughing. In fact, everyone was laughing.
They patted each other on the back, grasping their shoulders and slapping their heads, all to celebrate the achievement they had won. Harry winced at the particularly hard strike that came from Touch Me, but other than that, endured the celebratory antics of his friends.
From the corner of his eye, Harry even noticed Ulbert and Touch Me patting each other on the back as well.
“—Then, is this an artifact?” Punitto Moe asked, staring at the throne.
“How nice of them to provide a throne for us. Then, please take your rightful place, Guildmaster Momonga-sama. After that, let’s take a commemorative picture with him in the middle!”
“Sounds good! Sounds great! Come, come! Guildmaster, come have a seat!”
Nishiki Enrai and Warrior Takemikazuchi’s words were met with general approval, so Momonga did as he was told and sat on the throne.
And immediately after, the overlord froze in apparent shock.
“What’s wrong, Momonga-san?”
Even in a world without facial expressions, anyone would find it strange if someone suddenly froze and didn’t move.
“Is it a nanomachine depletion message?”
“No… This… this is a— a World-Class Item.”
Silence fell across the guild members, who were lined up for the photo shoot. They could not understand what Momonga was saying.
“Hey, it’s true. Seems to be a reward for clearing the dungeon on the first try,” Harry confirmed once he got closer to the World-Class Item, which seemed to be named ‘The Throne of Kings’.
A great commotion erupted from his friends upon hearing his words. At first, it was only the phrase “World-Class Item” that fell from their lips — and then it was thunderous cheering. Just like before, great shouts of “shitty devs!” rang out everywhere.
“I knew it from the start. Clearing this dungeon in one shot would give us a World-Class Item!”
“As if you really knew that, you arse!”
“Awesome! How about that?! You bastard developers!”
As everyone began dancing strangely, Momonga decided to rise from the throne and vacate it, so anyone could sit down.
Harry was too tired to do much, so he only sat down on the floor and closed his eyes. He tuned out the passing conversations of the people around him, until a particular piece actually called his attention.
“No, no, no, Momonga-san. There’s no need for that. If the venture failed, you were willing to bear everyone’s disappointment and unhappiness, weren’t you? If that’s the case, then you should accept the praise that comes from succeeding. Otherwise it would be strange, no?” Ulbert stated, seemingly chastising the overlord about something.
“Aw, don’t be like that. I regretted this thing so many times,” Momonga spilled his guts in a thoroughly exhausted voice. The others seemed to find it amusing, but their laughs were not those of scorn.
“Got it. For all we know, this reluctance of yours might make you a good Guildmaster. Though I think it would be good if you were more of a take-charge kind of person—”
“What are you saying? Isn’t that one of Momonga-san’s virtues? I mean, aren’t we all following him because he’s like that?”
“That’s right… yes, indeed, it’s just as you say,” Touch Me said in a self-reflective voice.
“Hey! What are you babbling about, over there? Come quick! We’re taking the photo now!”
“Come, come! Guildmaster! Have a seat on the throne!”
“Harry pick up yourself from there, you look like a deflated balloon!” Peroroncino called him over as well, which made him roll his eyes playfully before slowly standing up.
Nishiki Enrai and Warrior Takemikazuchi practically pushed Momonga onto the throne, while everyone else took their place around the World class item. Harry, being one of the shortest on the Guild, ended up on the front just behind the Throne, at Momonga’s right side.
“All right! We’re taking the photo!”
Everyone struck a pose of some sort, using their bodily motions to compensate for the lack of facial expressions in the ‘Game’.
“Here we go! Three, two one!”
The floating orb-like camera before them was a cash item, which made the sound of a shutter clicking. At the same time, a ding-dong rang in Harry’s ears.
He knew without looking that this was the chime of a received message, as the picture of Ainz Ooal Gown materialized on his hands.
Looking at the photo warmly, Harry smiled.
It was alright, even if he didn’t have his old dungeon anymore.