Ealdred Crow’s top five parties, all wearing Red-thread Fire Coats, waited for their turns to exit the defensive perimeter of the barrier, while Rook stayed inside with three other Summoners and had yet to make a move.
A large number of Magic Stones had been piled up in front of the four Summoners, and now, one last Large Magic Stone was carried over and added to the pile by a brawny man. The Dwarf girl from the Magic Stone Exchange checked her list, then informed Rook that everything had been delivered.
“All right, let’s do this!” Rook said and smiled, and the other Summoners nodded.
They then stood in their positions: Rook in front of the Red Largest Magic Stone, and the three others in front of the Green, Purple, and Blue ones respectively. These Largest Magic Stones were extremely valuable, dropping only rarely from even the monsters on the levels of Layer Bosses.
Underneath the Largest Magic Stones were arranged piles of countless other Large Magic Stones, both of the Colorless and colored varieties. They had been stacked together in pyramid-like formations.
“<<Summon — Queen Spider>>.”
On the Summoners’ first cast skill, the Green Largest Magic Stone and the countless other Magic Stones around it started to melt away. The mass of liquid then rose up as if to cover the Green Large Magic Stones around it, and then gradually formed into a shape.
A gigantic spider then landed on the ground with its eight legs, its thin yet strong main thread extending from the tip of its abdomen. Its soft, feather-like hairs swayed on its pristine white body. This monster was the Queen Spider, the Layer Boss of the Swamp.
“<<Summon — Demi-Lich>>.”
On the next cast, a Skeleton in a black robe appeared, its whole being surrounded by an ominous aura. It was a manipulator of the undead, which would appear after one destroyed enough of the infinitely-respawning Skeletons in the Graveyard of the Wasteland layers. The Demi-Lich wielded its Bone Staff and started summoning one of its skeletal subordinates after another.
“<<Summon — Shell Crab>>.”
The summoned giant crab raised both its arms and let out an ear-piercing cry. The ores and crystals on its shell reflected the light of the sun, giving its body a dazzling sparkle as it quietly lowered its arms. This was the Shell Crab, the Layer Boss of the Beach.
“<<Summon — Fire Dragon>>.”
And lastly, the red Dragon kicked the ground and ascended into the sky. It let out a fiendish roar and got ready to leave the barrier, flapping its wings to stay in position as if waiting for its orders. This was the Fire Dragon, the Layer Boss of the Valley, truly a creature born to rule the sky.
Four Layer Boss monsters had been summoned inside the barrier. Unlike their usual iterations, however, they were willing to even kill themselves if the Summoners ordered them to do so. The Fire Dragon slowly descended to the ground at Rook’s command, and then all four monsters lowered their heads in the presence of their Summoners.
The people cheered loudly at this unprecedented sight, and the staff of Solit Company captured the scene with their Photographing Machines. The nobility and the soldiers operating the anti-monster magic tools had already known of these monsters’ summonings; nevertheless, they too were overwhelmed once they saw the real deal with their own eyes.
Once the four monsters were done pledging their obedience, Rook waddled up the air onto the Fire Dragon’s back. He was able to do so thanks to a White Mage casting <<Fly>> on him beforehand, but the way he went about it made it look like he could fly himself.
To summon monsters on the tier of Layer Bosses, one needed not only a Largest Magic Stone, which dropped rarely from defeated Layer Bosses, but also a large quantity of both colored and Colorless Magic Stones. The cost was so immense that it was impossible to use them in normal Dungeon exploration.
Since this Stampede was an unusual one, however, it was worth it to expend all these Magic Stones. As such, the four Summoners were quite elated to get to summon monsters they would never be able to otherwise. Rook in particular was having so much fun that he was now rubbing his cheeks against the Fire Dragon’s red scales.
“All right then, here we go!”
“Man, it must be so nice up there! You gotta let me ride it too, if it lives through the whole fight!”
The Summoner carried by the Demi-Lich looked enviously at Rook as the latter rode on the Fire Dragon. Rook raised one hand to the man and tapped on the Fire Dragon’s back, prompting it to flap its wings and ascend into the sky.
The nobility disengaged a section of their barrier magic, letting the four summoned Layer Boss monsters exit and head toward the crashed enemy Fire Dragons. Ealdred Crow parties #1 and #2 split into groups of ten to pick off the injured Fire Dragons, while the Summoners, seeing that the situation was stable enough, split into groups of two each.
One pair was the Fire Dragon and the Demi-Lich, and the other was the Queen Spider and the Shell Crab, each taking on one of the two remaining Fire Dragons. Rook, riding his summoned Fire Dragon, headed over to support party #4, facing off against one of the Fire Dragons.
The Fire Dragon Rook had summoned was slightly larger and stronger than the one he was up against. Additionally, the musical support effects from the band applied to allied Eidolons as well, increasing all non-LUK status ratings by one tier. With that sort of boost, his Fire Dragon was bound to be incredibly powerful.
As such, the injured enemy Fire Dragon stood no chance; it was easily pinned down, allowing the long-ranged Attackers of party #4 to safely attack it. Additionally, the smaller skeletal monsters summoned by the Demi-Lich also worked to gradually peel the monster’s scales off.
The Demi-Lich and the other skeletal monsters seemed to be weak to sunlight, however, as apparent from how they were not able to exert much power. Still, just Rook’s Fire Dragon was enough for the job; as the battle between the two Fire Dragons raged on, the members of party #4 got to watch from a safe distance.
On the side of the Shell Crab and Queen Spider, however, they were not able to pin down their Fire Dragon as easily as Rook had. Still, the fitting combination of eight-legged monsters eventually managed to overpower the Fire Dragon all the same. After the Queen Spider shot its fire-resistant threads out of its rotund abdomen at the Fire Dragon, the Shell Crab chipped away at the enemy monster with its gigantic pincers and compressed water blasts.
The Queen Spider with its AGI boosted was faster than it ever had been, and it also used its main thread to help the Shell Crab pull off unpredictable maneuvers, messing with the Fire Dragon’s ability to react. Whenever there was the opening, the Queen Spider would bite the Fire Dragon, melting its scales and flesh with the venom its fangs spewed.
At one point, the Shell Crab got hit by the Dragon’s fire breath… which resulted in it giving off quite a delicious smell. Fortunately, a White Mage was quick to heal it, preventing it from turning into a roasted crab.
In the end, the four Summoners successfully subdued and killed two Fire Dragons. Ealdred Crow’s first two parties had already defeated Fire Dragons in God’s Dungeon on a regular basis, and now, they were backed by additional members; that had no difficulty here at all, and the Fire Dragons’ injuries from crashing to the ground only made things easier.
After they were done with their four Dragons, Ealdred Crow took stock of the situation and went to the aid of the other groups, with their four Summoners being the primary force.
――▽▽――
Alma, dressed in a black robe and carrying her Black Staff, cast <<Meteor Stream>> three times to intercept the Dragons. Seeing that the Black Dragons and the Lightning Dragon had not taken as many hits as she would like, she scowled at them while drinking some Blue Potion.
“Alma, you finish off the ones on the ground. I’ll take the ones over there.”
“W-wait a second! I can also–“
Weiss, the Clan Leader of Scarlet Devil Squad, wore an all-black armor, and his black hair, the length of which was quite long for men’s standards, swayed nicely in the wind. He ordered one Healer to follow him as he headed toward the barrier; seeing him run off, Alma secretly clicked her tongue out of annoyance.
Weiss behaved this way only because he had what it took; for those who could not, facing an Ice Dragon alone on their first try would be equal to suicide, and the people around them would have prevented them from doing so. For Weiss, on the other hand, people allowed him to do what he did, with the subconscious belief that he could win.
It was because he had a unique skill. Skills that manifested only in those who were chosen by God, few individuals in this world possessed one, and Weiss was one among them. The one he had was called the <<Phoenix Soul>>, which gave a boost to his body heat and automatically healed his wounds.
There was quite an overwhelming difference in strength between those who possessed a unique skill and those who did not. The former was practically favored by God over the latter. All the significant figures in town had one — the Security Team Director, the Guild Master, and the Leaders of Major Clans… with the few exceptions being Ealdred Crow’s Rook and Commander Melchor of the nobility’s private military force.
[Must be so nice to have one of those! Just look at him, free to fight however he likes!] Alma grumbled at Weiss in her mind, disgruntled that he had run off without hearing her to the end first. She then violently flung away the now-empty Blue Potion vial and headed toward the crashed Ice Dragon with the remaining eight Scarlet Devil Squad members.
Alma had not always disliked Weiss this much; at first, back when he was not yet famous, Weiss had invited her to join his party, and together, they established a Clan, working their way up to be one of the major Clan they were now. Alma had performed well as one of the Clan’s Attackers, and she had been satisfied to stay that way.
After obtaining the Black Staff, however, she had changed. She had purchased the staff with a combination of her Clan’s funds and a sizable chunk of her personal savings, and with it came a power boost on the level of a unique skill. Using it greatly lessened magic skills’ consumption of her mental energy while increasing their firepower. Not only that, the power boost it provided was an order of magnitude higher than any other staff available in the market.
In truth, this bejeweled staff was one of the best staves known to exist, craftable with a variety of materials, some of which would be found on the Dungeon’s hundredth layer. One such material came from the Layer Boss of the Ancient Castle, the Corroded Elder Dragon, with a drop rate of one percent. A great quantity of other one-percent drop materials was also required… Furthermore, the crafting process had a fixed chance of failing, thus destroying the weapon and everything that had gone into it. It was truly a weapon for the most hardcore of completionists.
Hovering over the remains of countless failed Black Staves was the one in Alma’s possession. Enhanced to its maximum power potential, it could carry even a solo White Mage to the medium layers of the Dungeon. No one in this world realized it yet, but this staff’s capabilities were practically a cheat.
Obtaining this Black Staff had allowed the Scarlet Devil Squad to brute-force their way past the Fire Dragon, a beef gate that they had been failing to surpass for six months, and one that everyone else would consider most difficult to get through for quite a while after that. Alma’s major contribution to her Clan’s victory had led the press to put her on a figurative pedestal, and as a result her becoming famous overnight.
She had been hailed as a new pillar of the Scarlet Devil Squad, a notion that Weiss also acknowledged. All that had made Alma happy beyond belief — especially how she had been recognized as an equal by Weiss, whereas before then, she had felt the distance between them widen some time along the way.
As more months had gone by, however, Alma’s view of Weiss had changed. The target of her envy was now within her reach… and that sentiment gave way to jealousy. She had begun to feel jealous of Weiss’ Unique Skill.
She thought that if only she had a unique skill of her own to go with the Black Staff, she would be at the undisputed top. The more she thought about it, the hotter the jealousy burned in her heart — not only toward Weiss, but other people with unique skills as well. She practically had developed an inferiority complex when it came to them.
[Well, that’s okay. I just have to put on one hell of a show today — that’ll make me even more famous!]
With that in mind, Alma flew through the sky together with her eight Clan mates, arriving at the crashed Ice Dragon.
The monster’s wing bones had been broken, and it was leaking cold air from its mouth as if in pain. Alma proceeded to point her Black Staff at it.
“<<Meteor Stream>>!”
Upon Alma’s casting of the skill, the sky momentarily lit up, and the next moment, black meteorites came crashing down on the Ice Dragon. One cluster after another, they kept pouring down incessantly like rain. The <<Meteor Stream>> — it was Alma’s preferred skill, and its power was immense.
“<<Meteor Stream>>! <<Meteor Stream>>!”
Countless meteorites continued to rain down, piling up higher and higher as the Ice Dragon braced for impact, keeping its body wrapped in an obscuring haze. Eventually, the Dragon’s body was buried down in its entirety.
“<<Galvanic Blast>>.”
“<<Crimson Burn>>.”
“<<Flame Serpent>>.”
“<<Explosion>>.”
The other Black Mages and Sorcerers followed Alma’s lead, unleashing their magic skills. Lightning running through the earth, a large-scale flame, a meteorite surrounded by snake-shaped flames, a plain old explosion — a variety of effects blasted away at the Ice Dragon.
Even while they were drinking Blue Potions, they kept casting more and more fire-based magic skills, the sheer heat of them gradually turning the meteorites molten red. The sound of evaporating liquid leaked out of the gaps between the rocks, followed by rising masses of water vapor.
Before the heated steam reached them, the Scarlet Devil Squad members stopped their attacks and took cover, observing from afar. The steam grew whiter and whiter as it cooled, until it became mist-like, covering all over the fallen meteorites.
They looked on as the pile of rocks disappeared into the expanding mist; confused as to what they should do, they turned to ask Alma,
“…What now?”
“It took quite a beating there — things should be going well. For now, let’s clear this mist first. Anyone of you can cast <<Blast>>?”
The skill Alma requested was a wind-elemental spell effective for clearing the mist, which had been formed from the quickly-cooled water vapor. One of the Black Mages held up his staff and repeatedly shot out air bullets, dispersing the mist.
“Gah–“
“Huh?”
Without warning, a keenly sharpened shard of ice flew at the Black Mage, as if to pay him back for the air bullets. Landing a direct hit on his abdomen, the man started bleeding profusely. A White Mage hurried to put up a <<Barrier>> and proceed with the medical treatment. Countless ice shards continued to be shot at the Attackers, however, knocking down one of them after another.
Once the mist cleared, what appeared was the Ice Dragon; its body was now white, and its mouth was wide open, ready to unleash a breath attack. A chill ran down Alma’s spine.
“<<Volcano>>!”
She immediately cast a fire-elemental skill, clashing it against the Ice Dragon’s freezing breath. That barely managed to nullify the incoming attack, but Alma was astonished to see that the Ice Dragon itself still showed no signs of weakening.
[How!? We already blasted it to hell and back! How is this thing still moving!?]
It was quite unbelievable that the Dragon was still alive, having eaten so many magic spells head-on. In fact, as the monster emerged from the mist, it did not seem to have even taken much damage. It shook its body, causing thick pieces and layers of ice to fall off.
[…It’s been using ice as its armor!? Damn oversized lizard!]
Thanks to that, the Ice Dragon was walking out relatively unscathed from all the fire-based skills. After the first round of <<Meteor Stream>>, the monster had released the cold air from its body. Clashing with the heat of the fire-elemental attacks, the vapors in the air had condensed into water, which turned into ice after being cooled again, forming a thick armor to protect the Dragon’s body.
“Everyone, spread out! Attack with fire-based skills! <<Meteor Stream>>!” Alma shouted out her instructions, her voice helping to cancel out the sense of dread.
She cast <<Meteor Stream>>, but this time, the Ice Dragon could already tell what she was doing. The monsters immediately got on all-fours and ran out of its spot, avoiding the meteorites.
Having taken the full brunt of the <<Meteor Stream>> twice, the Ice Dragon was fully locked on to Alma. The other Attackers, now healed up, also attacked with their skills, but the monster paid no attention to them as it continued to crawl toward its sole target.
Alma flew away in an attempt to escape the Dragon. It was now unable to fly up, so going high in the sky should be safe… was what Alma thought as she ascended as fast as she could.
But then the Ice Dragon closed its mouth and chewed on something, after which it blew out a wide spray of ice shards. It had frozen its own saliva, weaponizing it like a shotgun.
“Agh–!”
The shards pierced through Alma’s legs and abdomen. Losing her posture mid-air, she fell, plunging head-first to the ground below.
[Oh shit oh shit oh shit! I’m so freaking dead!]
She was bleeding hard, and the ground seemed as if it was charging at her. Her head was filled with thoughts of death, and she could not control her <<Fly>> very well. As the ground got closer and closer, she closed her eyes in fear.
But then help arrived — a dark silhouette swiftly flew, sweeping up Alma from the side and carrying her high up into the sky. The Ice Dragon blew out another spray of ice shards, but it was too slow; its target had already gone too far for its attacks to reach. The Dragon proceeded to chase after them, roaring furiously.
The short-haired man, his body covered in the effect of <<Gold Bless>>, his arms carrying Alma, moved with a level of speed almost too high to follow with the naked eye, reaching the defensive barrier near-instantaneously. As soon as he knocked on the barrier, it opened; he proceeded to hand the badly bleeding Alma over to one of the White Mages inside.
“Hurry and patch her up,” The blond man said with a reassuring smile.
“Y-yes, sir!” The White Mage promptly replied, blushing lightly… despite being a man.
The Ice Dragon looked around, searching for the target it had missed, while also moving closer and closer to the barrier. Leon, the Clan Leader of Golden Tune, looked at the Dragon in the distance, seemingly enjoying the sight.
Other Golden Tune Clan members — all women — appeared from inside the barrier and surrounded Leon. Unlike the Scarlet Devil Squad’s formation, none of them were Attackers, all being Tanks boasting high VIT.
“All right, let’s get ready to hunt us a Dragon or two!”
“We still haven’t won against a single Fire Dragon, though…”
“Hey, we don’t talk about that here!”
Leon and his crew threw around some light-hearted banter before drawing their weapons, readying themselves to face off against the Ice Dragon.
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