The Unwanted Undead Adventurer: Volume 4 Page 9

  With the Goblin now sufficiently distracted, I seized the opportunity, dashing forward and swinging my blade at its exposed head. My weapon cut deep, fracturing its skull, before splitting the Goblin into two clean halves.

  With a shudder, the Mina Goblin fell to the ground, fresh blood spewing forth from the separated corpse on the ground.

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  Although I did proceed with the dissection of the Mina Goblin, it soon became evident that there wasn’t very much to recover from it. Its weapons and equipment, along with the magic crystal near its heart, were useful, but there was no tangible use for the rest of the carcass.

  I supposed I could remove its right ear and take it with me as a bounty, though there were currently no active hunting requests at the guild. Since I didn’t even remember seeing such a request in the first place, it was most likely a pointless venture—but I decided to take the ear anyway. A single ear wouldn’t take up much space.

  As for its weapons and equipment... Well, while they were indeed smithed with mana iron excavated from these tunnels, Goblin blacksmithing techniques weren’t all that impressive. The purity of the ore and the construction of the weapon left much to be desired. It was also a Goblin-sized axe, so it wouldn’t be of much value even if I did take it with me.

  I guess it was technically possible to melt the axe down and re-use the metal itself, but that would require putting more time and resources into the refinement process. At the end of the day, it seemed cheaper to simply bring any blacksmith a piece of ore containing mana iron instead.

  I decided to leave the axe where it lay.

  The magic crystal, however, was of a fair size and quality. I promptly decided to take it with me. The crystal could be used as material for the wands...and if that wasn’t possible, it could always be sold for some coin.

  Even so...I supposed this was all one could hope to extract from the carcass of a Mina Goblin.

  With that, I set out, starting my journey through these tunnels once more.

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  I felt like I’d ventured deep into these tunnels. I could feel the air stagnating around me as I continued on.

  Given how these tunnels were, it wasn’t entirely impossible for certain sections to be filled with poisonous gas. While the concentration of these gases wasn’t high, I’d heard of certain tunnels occasionally becoming sealed off due to a sudden increase in gas concentrations. There were no such warnings from the guild now, however, but I couldn’t be entirely sure that there were no noxious gasses in these tunnels.

  Basically, it was safe to assume that the surroundings were poisonous to a certain degree.

  But I was particularly resistant to such poisons. I’d been completely immune to all sorts of poisons during my tenure as a Ghoul alone. I supposed the same also applied during my time as a Skeleton.

  Even though I’d since evolved into a Lesser Vampire, my resistance didn’t seem to fade. It was times like these when I felt grateful for this body of mine. I was able to progress without issues.

  I hardly felt like I was omnipotent or immortal—the fact that my regeneration seemed to have a limit reminded me of that fact. Perhaps I’d been somewhat reckless as of late, thinking it was fine for me to do certain, usually fatal things, disregarding the danger simply because I was an Undead. Maybe I just wasn’t very receptive to danger... No, if I had to describe it, it’d be more of a feeling—a feeling that this wasn’t enough to kill me.

  An overconfidence in my abilities, perhaps. Or maybe a condition brought about by my status as a member of the walking dead. Regardless, this case seemed more of the former, and so I slowed down, proceeding cautiously as I checked my surroundings. It was cowardly adventurers who often lived the longest—so goes the saying.

  Eventually, a large set of doors appeared before my eyes.

  Well, now...how should we go about doing this?

  Or rather, what should we do in the first place? This set of doors was obviously an entrance to a Boss Chamber. Would it be all right to simply step inside?

  My Undead intuition was egging me on. We should go. Let’s go inside already, it said. My old adventurer’s sense, however, was begging me to stop, reasoning that I should slay some more monsters in this area before attempting such a thing. It was undoubtedly the safer option.

  But...it couldn’t be too bad.

  Well, then...we should get going.

  All we had to do should there be any danger was run. Return to this place.

  It was a Boss Chamber, yes, but I could hardly imagine an inescapable chamber on the fourth floor. Under normal circumstances, said chambers were only found at around 40 floors deep. Considering the chamber I’d encountered in the Labyrinth of the Moon’s Reflection, though, I suppose I could declare that as an ironclad fact... But even so, that was more the exception than the norm.

  Unlike the previous occurrence, I hadn’t entered some secret passage, gotten teleported somewhere, then overcome a series of obstacles to arrive at this door. No—this door simply stood here, plainly announcing its presence. If there really were some complicated mechanism to this whole thing, it would have been at least discussed by the adventurers who frequented this floor often.

  With all those thoughts in mind, my conclusion was that this was hardly a special room. It simply couldn’t be the case...and so, it should be fine to enter.

  I repeated this to myself, over and over again, as I placed a hand on the door.

  Was I being careless? Reckless? Or was I simply uneasy? And yet...I somehow just had a feeling that this boss room in particular wouldn’t pose much of a threat.

  At the very least...it was a room that one could escape from anytime.

  I did feel that something was off though. My so-called Undead intuition perhaps?

  Irregular and strange things would happen to an adventurer from time to time. If I were to get too caught up in the specifics and continuously hesitate, I’d never get anywhere.

  So...I supposed this was all right. I wasn’t wrong; I wasn’t being reckless.

  I gave the doors a good push and looked on silently as they swung open with a low rumble.

  Ah. It seemed it was a normal Boss Chamber after all.

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  It looked like my deductions were largely accurate as I peeked through the door.

  There was, however, a bit of a problem with the boss monster perched in the middle of the room. With its huge body, glistening scales, four feet on the ground, and a large horn of ore and rock on its head... All of these factors were meant to showcase its strength. A single look at it was enough to suggest that it was by no means a weak foe—the monster before me was a Terra Drake.

  It was a Lesser Dragon of sorts, more accurately a subspecies that commonly preferred to live underground. It might be a lesser subspecies, but it was still a Dragon; relatively speaking, it was a monster of significant strength. It was a monster not normally associated with appearing on the fourth floor, but the possibility of it doing so was apparent.

  In any case, the Terra Drake in the center of the room wasn’t very big. It might be large compared to me, but if I were to compare it to a mature Dragon, it was somewhat smaller—about 25% of a mature specimen’s size. If I had to guess...it would be around four meters. If this were the case...then perhaps I could do something about this Drake.

  Even so...I couldn’t help but feel that its size was strange. Normally, Dragons of all types grew larger and gained strength as they aged. Given that this Drake was somewhat smaller than a mature Dragon, I suppose it wasn’t overwhelmingly powerful.

  Basically, I gave the matter serious thought as I sized the Terra Drake up.

  Then I glanced at the door. It wasn’t thick by any means. I could certainly break through it and escape if it came down to it.

  With that in mind, I could reasonably assume that this wasn’t a boss room of the inescapable variety. Of course, there was the possibility that the door was made of some sort o
f special material, making it difficult to destroy in that case. But it didn’t seem all that different from the rock walls around it, however.

  Perhaps it seemed a little silly to think about escaping before the fight had even begun, but this, too, was an important strategy to consider. If these were the factors at hand, then...very well.

  Gathering my thoughts, I slowly entered the room. The door showed no signs of closing even as I approached the center of the chamber. Escape from this encounter was possible, as I expected.

  This development filled me with a deep sense of relief. Slowly, I drew my sword, and began channeling mana into its blade.

  A combat stance.

  The four-legged Terra Drake didn’t move an inch. Instead, it merely continued staring in my general direction. Perhaps it was simply observing me, or waiting for me to get closer. Whatever the case, this meant I simply should strike first...or so I thought.

  Slowly, I accelerated, before breaking into a run. In the midst of my sprint...

  “...GUURRRGGYYYAAAAAA!!!”

  An ear splitting roar arose from its throat.

  But that wouldn’t stop me. Without any hesitation, I aimed for the head of the beast, swinging my blade as I closed in. Unfortunately...

  Tink!

  With a metallic clash, my blade was blocked. The Terra Drake had defended against my attack.

  This was nothing about how hard its scales were however. Given that Terra Drakes were a subspecies of Lesser Dragon, one would expect their skin and scales to be impressively tough, which was a reasonable assumption. I already knew that before my attack.

  While it was also true that I’d never properly fought a Terra Drake up until now, I did, at the very least, have some knowledge about the creature, including knowledge of its natural defenses. That was exactly why I’d channeled more mana than I ever had before into my weapon and body.

  Despite this, the monster was able to defend against my blow. What appeared to be a shield of rock and stone had risen up around the Terra Drake’s head as I brought my sword down. It was a helmet-like shield, made from the stone and rock scattered in the nearby area, most likely spontaneously crafted as soon as I swung my blade.

  This was none other than magic, and used by monsters at that.

  In fact, it was elemental magic. Compared to the magecraft that humans wielded today, elemental magic was very old. However, its usefulness and power couldn’t be underestimated. While incantations and the like were useful when it came to magecraft, a visual image of the spell itself was important as well. Elemental magic, on the other hand, drew on natural phenomena. As such, it was very easy to visualize.

  In addition, there were other ways elemental magic could be utilized advantageously, with one such way being what I had just witnessed.

  This was the ability to use one’s surroundings as weapons. For example, if earth elemental magic was used in a place where there was an abundance of rock and soil, it would be simple to gather and extract it from the surroundings. The amount of magic required to do this would also be reduced, and it would be possible for one to increase the destructive power of the spell, or even enhance one’s magic. This was exactly what the Terra Drake before me had done. It had gathered stones and rocks from its surroundings, and had used them to form a shield to defend against my attacks.

  Given the nature of the terrain around me, it was safe to assume that the rocks it was using contained veins of Mana Iron, and in high concentrations. These rocks, in turn, were further strengthened by the Terra Drake’s magic and formed a formidable defense.

  I had no concrete proof of all this, of course, but it remained unchanged that the Drake had successfully defended against my attack. If one were to think about it normally, rationally, this would be the endgame.

  I launched a surprise attack, one infused with high amounts of mana. One of the strongest attacks in my arsenal, and yet...the Drake had defended itself so easily. But if I were to give up here, I’d never become a Mithril-class adventurer, no matter how much time I put into it.

  I still had many moves left. I kept my ace up my sleeve, and that rock shield may yet have some sort of undiscovered weakness.

  I momentarily retreated, instead intending to observe the Terra Drake’s next actions. The Terra Drake, as if reading my mind, charged at me in response, closing in at a fearsome speed.

  Just as I realized how bad the situation was, I found that the Drake was already before me. Panicking, I dodged to the side desperately. The Terra Drake’s response was swift. Pivoting its giant body, it spun, swinging its tail sideways and down. Just as I thought I’d dodged the blow, in came its tail, hardly giving me any breathing room. There was nothing I could do but raise the flat of my blade. The Drake’s tail made contact with my body. Soon, I was sailing through the air.

  Wham!

  I slammed into one of the chamber’s walls with a resounding thud. I could hear pieces of fragmented rock raining onto the ground around me. Such was the force of the impact, the power of the blow.

  To make things worse, the Terra Drake was far from done. It pressed the attack, charging directly at me.

  I must avoid another hit...

  That was the singular thought that filled my mind as I felt the previous impact radiate through me.

  I’d simply receive yet another hit from its tail should I dodge to the side again. In that case...

  I remained still, allowing the Drake to continue its charge. I was aiming for a specific moment, with a foot against the wall, just before it hit me.

  My goal was the Terra Drake’s back.

  Could I really do this...?

  It was almost like the very flow of time itself stretched out—each moment felt like an eternity. I was in a most vulnerable state.

  If it came to it, I could infuse spirit into my wings and quickly launch myself away. But the Drake would surely give chase again if I did so.

  Please...work.

  Slowly but surely, the grains of frozen time flowed on.

  The head of the Terra Drake was now close enough... Slowly, I stretched out my leg, aiming for its surface. The monster still hadn’t noticed.

  The Drake made contact with where I’d been moments ago, kicking up a large cloud of dust, impairing its vision.

  I, on the other hand, didn’t have a normal sense of sight. Instead, I could see as most Undead did: via body warmth.

  Thank you, oh body of mine.

  In fact, being able to shrug off being slammed into a rock wall with light dizziness and vertigo was in no small part due to this body as well. Under normal circumstances, I would have definitely died.

  I stepped down, my foot now unmistakably on the Terra Drake’s head. At that very moment, I’d already raised my sword, its blade descending upon the beast.

  If the Drake had noticed me, I’d be vulnerable, exposed to a counterattack. However, this was also my single, greatest chance. If the attack connected, I’d be able to fell the Terra Drake with a single blow.

  Those were the thoughts in my mind as I brought my sword down. However...

  The blade of my weapon pierced its neck. A little more and I’d have it, but...

  Almost instantly, a rock shield formed around its neck, knocking my blade away. It seemed I wouldn’t be able to finish it so easily, though I did leave behind a considerable wound on the monster.

  It was now evident that the shield wasn’t impervious to attacks. Unfortunately, it was equally evident that such an attack would no longer work on the Drake.

  I ran swiftly down the Drake’s back, intending to escape from its field of vision. Even a Terra Drake couldn’t accurately pinpoint the location of a foe on its back. As if understanding this, the Drake instead began thrashing about, trying to dislodge me.

  I supposed it was about to start spinning in place again, but at this point, my two feet were already firmly on the ground. I’d landed by the Drake’s side where I could now see its underbelly.

  It’s now or never.
>
  With that in mind, I liberally channeled both mana and spirit into my weapon. It was time... The Mana-Spirit Fusion Art.

  Swinging my weapon in a large horizontal arc, I brought it across the Drake’s exposed belly. Unlike the hard scales around its neck and back, the skin of a Terra Drake’s stomach was considerably softer, and easier to slice into. There was, of course, the fact that I was using a Fusion Art, but I hadn’t anticipated for there to be this little resistance. I supposed this was the monster’s weak point.

  This, too, was written in the monster codex I had read. However, it was extremely difficult to have the Drake show its belly to an enemy of its own volition, making it a difficult area to hit. I was lucky this time.

  The Terra Drake had a surprising amount of vitality. It refused to die even with its belly sliced open. Almost immediately, it stood up once more and headed in my direction. With a few stomps of its feet, spears of rock and earth arose from the ground, one after another. I dodged the earthen spears one by one, closing the distance between us to finish the job. The monster, upon seeing my approach, intensified its attacks. Spears of earth and stone now formed in mid-air and were sent rapidly hurtling toward me.

  Perhaps it was due to its injuries, but the Drake seemed distracted, and its magical attacks were anything but accurate. Even so, the attacks were impressive in terms of impact. Still, they weren’t much of a threat, compared to the Drake’s behavior before.

  I arrived at the front of the monster and jumped up high, aiming for its head. I supposed that rock shield would be appearing right about now...and as expected, it did just that.

  As I brought my sword down, the Terra Drake attempted to put up its shield once more. The integrity of the gathered rocks, however, had decreased drastically. Loosely-gathered rocks were nothing more than soft flesh before the force of my Mana-Spirit Fusion Art.

  With a single, smooth motion, the blade of my weapon sliced cleanly through the Terra Drake’s neck, and its head fell. Almost at the same time, its body went limp, collapsing onto the ground with a loud, booming thud.