BXBX NOVEL Chapter 111
Chapter 111
We dove into dungeons, collecting stardust shards and gaining experience. Rin and I were going through our daily schedule as usual.
After ten days of preparation and running around, the end was finally in sight. In a half-hour, it would be five o’clock in the afternoon.
That will mark the beginning of the <<Defeat the Apostle>> battle as well the end of this event.
“It’s a little early, but let’s wrap it up here.”
“Nn, Okay.”
Rin-chan and I cut off our laps early, as we think that going more than this is not going to make any difference in our shard’s ranking.
With this, each of us will finish the event with about 240,000 stardust shards collected.
I don’t know if I could make it into top ranking, but I do hope so since I’ve spent a lot of time and effort on it.
Anyway, I was able to spend the entire event with Rin, so it was fun.
I’ve reached the point where I’m not too far behind her in terms of progress, and the two-week gap that existed when I first started has been closed.
We returned to the safe room and opened the catalog to find an item we could use. What follows after this is probably a unique raid battle in which almost every member is an attacker.
So we want to be at least prepared for it since the possibility of an unbalanced party is pretty high.
“By the way, is your weapon ready?”
“Yes. They made it in time.”
I replied without any excitement to Rin-chan because she is still streaming right now.
Haruru sent me a new weapon with the message, “If you have any good materials, please let me know…”
Taking a quick glance at the weapon already showed me that it was clearly more powerful than Kagenui. Haruru does a really good job.
Speaking of which, I won’t use this child immediately, or maybe I should say that I can’t show this child.
That said, I am confident that I can give her a proper debut, so if I don’t have the chance to use her this time, it’s okay.
“It been delivered to me, and the durability of my equipment is fine. Yeah, I’m all set.”
“Well, let’s not get too carried away. But even if we fail to defeat them, there are some strong players in the city of beginnings right now.”
“I’m not nervous. If anything, I’m rather excited about it.”
“It’s the same for me. Finally, at last, there is a monster to test my all-out attack.”
I can’t help but feel my cheeks twitch when I see Rin smiling so happily.
Rin is a mage-type player with a pure magic build, a staff made from named materials, and an arsenal of rare skills.
She has only one goal in mind. “To use powerful magic.” {Megumin, you’ve got comrades now}
The time has finally come for showing off her build.
It was inevitable that she would be excited.
“It’s about time, isn’t it?”
“Yes, anytime now.”
『Alert: Defeat the Apostle battle will begin.』
『Alert: Defeat the Apostle battle will begin.』
『Alert: Residents in the vicinity of the gate, please stand clear.』
It’s not an announcement but an alert.
I couldn’t help but frown at the loud volume that echoed through the safe room like a school broadcast. I’m not good with loud noises.
Rin-chan, on the other hand, was completely unfazed as she checked her equipment. You’re so reliable.
『Confirmed: The route connecting each universe is established, now closing the gate to the Stardust Labyrinth.』
『Continuing: Initiate the transfer of entity who had obtained the Great Key of Trial.』
Along with the voice, the Great Key of Trials that I had placed in my inventory softly floated to the surface.
The two of us were enveloped in a circle of light emitted by our own keys.
『Godspeed』
So that’s how is it, a forced warp.
Immediately we feel the floating sensation of warp that we had become accustomed to over the past ten days, and we were sent to the land of the battle to destroy the apostles.
☆☆
I closed my eyes in front of that blinding light.
And when I opened it, the scorched earth is laid bare as far as I can see.
The soil was covered with charred rubble as if there used to be a city that had been destroyed here.
We were standing on a circular field that had been left empty in a small part of it.
I looked up at the sky, which was blackened by the black smoke rising from the smoldering earth. All I could think of is the developer had created an easily recognizable space for this event.
When I looked back down, I saw the light of transition gushing out of the sky. It seemed that Rin and I had arrived too early, and I watched more and more players appeared.
Including us, fifteen people arrived, which was not even close to the thirty-player limit.
Or perhaps the number of players is exceeding 30, and they had to split us, so what we see here is the first group… okay, stop that, there’s no need to continue the delusion that won’t even exist.
It’s foolish to think that there might have been a limit to the number of players.
Or if such a miracle exists, the fact remains that 15 of us must fight against the monsters called Apostles and win.
However, it’s hard to accept that there are only 15 of us. Since this is a raid battle, the HP of the enemy monsters will be more than five times that of normal boss monsters.
This is because raid battles were designed to be challenged by a minimum of five full parties.
If there are simply five times as many people, the overall monster’s power will naturally jump up more than just five times. This is because hate and targets are dispersed, and there are more openings to attack them.
However, this formula is only true for advanced raids and not for this raid in which you are conditioned to work with random people.
Anyway, to counter the player’s strength, boss monsters in raid battles in all games without exception are given oversized HP.
This game is without exception, and the monster we’re about to fight will have the most massive HP I’ve ever encountered.
An HP worth 30 challengers in two hours fight, and we must do it with half of the people. To say that this is a herculean task is an understatement.
The players that had been gathered began to do their final checks.
One of them was coming towards us in a relaxed manner.
She is Drago, the leader of <<Dragon Fang>>.
She was the first player to defeat a named boss monster in this game, and at the same time, she is also a heavy swordsman who became famous for being the first to own a named weapon.
“Yo, you two.”
“Hey there, Drago. Did you change your armor?”
“Very Observant, I see. Yes, I’ve updated my gauntlet.”
Even though there were many people around, these two stood out and attracted a lot of attention.
Rin, of course, and Drago, as the leader of the largest clan in the world, Dragon’s Fang, are the ones who naturally will get the most attention.
Both of them were chatting without a trace of nervousness, and I had to say that they had great mental strength.
Nevertheless, the people gathered here were the top players of today who had overcome the ordeal to participate in this <<Destroy the Apostles>> raid.
There was no hierarchy of ability or position among them, but one thing is for sure, both are addicted cripples who were undoubtedly among the top players in the game at the moment.
And the two avatars were particularly famous and beautiful, so maybe I was just looking at them for eye candy.
A voice suddenly called for me when I was drowned in my observation of Drago and Rin’s beautiful figure.
“Sukuna, it’s been a while.”
“Ah, Shuya-san.”
He is Shuya, the third in command of the [Knights of the Round Table].
He is undeniably strong but somehow elusive.
When I first played with Touka-chan, Shuya was the one who guided her to Dualis.
He is as relaxed as ever, but today he’s covered in armor. Unlike the last time I saw him, he is now wearing chain silver armor, just like a knight.
The choice of equipment was surprising because I thought he was a light warrior who uses light armor, though he was not wearing full heavy armor and seemed to be able to move easily.
“It’s kind of surprising.”
“Surprising?”
“Yeah, your equipment. I thought you didn’t like this kind of get-up.”
Even though he’s a top-class clan leader, he’s a free spirited.
That’s why I thought he was the type who hated to use armor.
“You’re not wrong, though. Normally, I would never be using this. but since it’s the leader’s request…”
“Ah-chan’s?”
“She wants me to put it on to show my ranks inside the Round Table. Well, I didn’t have to worry about it because Leo and Erumi were there, but there’s nothing wrong with having insurance. By the way, Leo and Erumi are the tiger-beast and cat-beast duo from over there. They’re our number one and number four, so they’re pretty strong.”
Leo, is he the two-handed swordsman I saw earlier? And Erumi-san is the dual wielder? And what more, a dual rapier wielder?
I feel like I’ve seen something very rare.
“So there are three of you from the round table?”
“I guess so. And those three over there are the [Corporate Slave Special Force], I guess. It’s a strange guild where all the members are either freelancers or self-employed.”
“Eeh….”
The Clan [Corporate Slave Special Force]. If you believe Shuya’s words, it seems a clan with that kind of name but no livestock in it. {tln}
“Their leader, Tetsuya, is a tank, so it’s nice to have them in this raid.”
“What about the other two?
“I don’t know that much about them. Why don’t you ask them later?”
“I will.”
So, now we know the identities of the nine of us.
Three from the Round Table, three from the Corporate Slave Task Force, myself, Rin, and Drago-san make nine.
“By the way, there are four from Dragon Fang. I heard the other member was destroyed in the trials, but somehow Drago-san’s entire party made it through the trials.”
“The whole party, that’s amazing.”
“I too, think it’s amazing. Anyway, I’m really grateful that we have a healer, buffer, and tank.”
“The party composed of cripples is… flawless.”
According to Rin-chan’s information, Drago herself is a full attacker.
It’s good to have a balance between three supporters and one fighter, but even so, that party probably got them through the last ten days.
The fact that they had a healer and a buffer in this battle is a huge contribution.
“And then there’s the one over there …Owh?!”
“Whoa!”
While Shuya was telling me about the players who had gathered, the earth is roaring.
It wasn’t an earthquake. It was the aftermath of something jumping out of the pile of rubble with great force.
While listening to the screams and cries of amazement around me, I quickly confirmed that Rin-chan is safe and then looked up at the sky.
“…… ah ……”
I couldn’t help but let my voice leak out.
An unpleasant memory comes back to me.
It was more than two weeks ago, but the memory of defeat still lingers vividly.
Its wings tremble in the sky, and its claws and fangs are blades that cut through everything.
The proof of absolute strength, capable of killing a person with a single swipe.
“I’m not exactly the same as the one you fought back then. But… let me have my revenge match.”
<<Great Dragon of Waves, Ars Nova Lv. 90>>
Once again, a dragon with blue scales was in my sight. And a desperate raid battle with only 15 players was about to begin.
『We will now begin the battle to destroy the apostles.』
==========.
Author note:
A showdown of fate.
TL note:
Godspeed: I improvised… the original kanji is {may war fortune is yours} which one sounds better? Or if you have any suggestions…?
社畜機動部隊 = I translate this as [Corporate Slave Special Force] which is accurate, but if you take a look at 畜, this mean livestock / domestic animal. So that’s why Nana said there’s no livestock in their party. Which can relate to black company, people who work for such company often called livestock.