God's Blessing on this Wonderful Dungeon

By Icura and Special FX

~o~

Chapter 20: Into the Depths

~o~

After Megumin's impromptu disposal of the Monster Rex, it was decided that it would be more productive to continue onward until they could reach the safe zone after the boss floor. Therefore, they speedily made their way downward, though they did make a few stops to quickly do any quests that they had picked up. After going down three floors to reach the bottom of Waterfall City and picking up the drop item from the Monster Rex, they made their way to the next floor which was the safe zone.

The benefit of camping in a safe zone was that monsters couldn't spawn on that floor. While the monsters could come up or down the stairs leading to the floor, they didn't have to worry about monsters spawning from the walls. As such, it was only necessary to place the minimum amount of lookouts and guards, allowing most of the caravan to get a full night's rest. While there wasn't any development or civilization here, there was still plenty of vegetation and food, enough to restock their supplies even though they hadn't actually used all that much due to the speedy progress of their journey.

After taking a day to camp and rest up, they headed down to the next set of floors which were of the tree labyrinth type. For Kazuma, it seemed like more of the same, just with harder mobs. However, after that series of floors, they came to one where his opinion quickly changed.

Floor 37. The White Palace.

"Kazuma, Kazuma!"

"Yes, yes, I'm Kazuma," the aforementioned former Earthling dully replied. "What is it, Aqua?"

"These are fake undead!" Aqua pointed dramatically at the skeleton soldier ineffectively flailing its sword at Darkness, doing little except scuffing her armor. The masochistic knight was fighting back, but it turned out that skeletons actually do have enough intelligence—despite lacking a brain—to dodge her retaliatory strikes.

"How so?"

"They aren't trying to attack me!"

"Huh. That's true." Kazuma nodded his head thoughtfully, but after a few moments, he just shrugged his shoulders. "So what?"

To him, monsters were just monsters, fake or not. Just because they weren't focusing solely on her like actual undead didn't mean that they weren't monsters.

"It means they aren't real!" Aqua crossed her arms over her chest, angrily staring at the skeleton soldier. "They're artificial and not the result of lingering resentment. They're as fake as Eris' pads!"

"Stop insulting her when she's not here to defend herself!"

"If she really had a defense against that, I would have stopped using that ages ago!"

"That's…" Kazuma hesitated. "Maybe you should give her some tips on growing larger ones?"

"There's no way to do that. Are you dumb?" Aqua stared at Kazuma with pity in her eyes. However, that soon turned to suspicion. "Wait, are you going to suggest to her to allow you to massage her chest to make them grow? That's swelling from physical trauma, not growth, you hiki-NEET!"

"I wasn't thinking that at all!" Kazuma glanced slightly away. "...until now."

"She's right," Megumin said, interjecting into their conversation. She looked down at her chest. "I tried doing that for years and years, but it didn't work. I even had my little sister to help me."

"...how did we even get on this topic? How does any of this even relate to skeletons?"

"Of course, it's related," Aqua said confidently. "Since they have no flesh, they would obviously be the main consumer of pads! For someone who qualifies for the merchant class, you don't seem to know much about basic economics."

"There are so many things wrong that I don't even know where to begin."

"Fake breasts for fake skeletons! All of them are fraudulent! Observe!" Aqua raised her hand, pointing her palm at the skeleton doing its best to harass Darkness. "Sacred Turn Undead!"

A pillar of holy light erupted from underneath the skeleton, encompassing it in its entirety. Its jaw opened in a soundless scream before its bony frame turned to dust, leaving behind a magic stone that promptly dropped to the floor.

"Seems undead enough to me," Kazuma commented.

"Huh." Aqua blinked in confusion. "I didn't think that would actually work."

"I guess it's close enough?" Kazuma shrugged. "I mean, why can't an imitation be better than the original?"

"Because they're fake. Stop advocating for them, you faker!"

"I'm not advocating for them," he said indignantly. "And why did you call me a faker?"

"Because you faked being a loser!" Aqua huffed angrily. "A loser can't defeat the demon king so that means you were faking the whole time!"

"I guess? I mean, thanks…"

"Well, you're welcome!"

"Can you stop yelling already? Everyone is looking at us."

Indeed, almost the entire vanguard party was staring at them, but it wasn't because of their loud argument which was starting to become a staple of the expedition. No, it was more because of Aqua's sudden pillar of light.

At this point, even for Finn, the ridiculousness of Eris Familia was getting absurd. Even Darkness—the least flashy of the quartet—had been just standing there, letting a skeleton soldier wail on her. A skeleton soldier that, by all rights, should be strong enough to give level two adventurers a fight for their lives. Instead, the skeleton's attacks were bouncing harmlessly off of her.

Indeed, those four were completely ridiculous, but that was precisely why Finn had pushed so hard to bring them along for the expedition in the first place.

The rumors and stories seemed incredibly outlandish, but he had a good feeling about them, and it turned out to be the right decision. Although it was a joint expedition, when placed side by side, people wouldn't think of Eris Familia as an attachment to Loki Familia's venture, especially since the other familia was both smaller in membership and lower in level. However, their contributions had been far more significant than he had expected.

With their support, Finn was even thinking that it was possible to push far past their previous floor record.

Megumin had magical firepower that could match Riveria, Darkness seemed to be sturdy enough to even give Gareth a run for his money, and Aqua seemed to possess offensive abilities on top of her top-tier healing. Kazuma had been the only one who had yet to exhibit anything special so far, but Finn had a feeling that he was going to see something equally as ridiculous soon beyond what was already known. After all, he was the one who killed the captain of that Evilus familia.

"We're going to be approaching the next Monster Rex soon," Finn said as he stopped in front of a large cavern entrance. It was a good time to address some things. "Unfortunately, there won't be a safe spot this time for you to snipe it like the last one and we'd prefer to not get caught within the blast radius so I'll have to ask you to hold off on your Explosion spell unless I give the order."

"Haaaah?" Megumin gave him a look. "I don't take orders from—"

Kazuma smacked her on the back of the head.

"Gotcha," the Eris Familia captain replied with a thumbs up. "I'll keep an eye on her."

"Kazuuuumaaaa!"

Finn just stared at the sight of the ensuing argument before he coughed into his fist to regather himself and clear the air.

"Right. Anyway, the floor boss is known as Udaeus and it spawns inside the throne room," Finn explained as he marked a simple diagram on the floor with some chalk. "Its body is similar to that of the Spartoi on this floor, albeit much larger and with no lower half. Due to it being stuck into the ground, it is able to spread its attacks through the ground as well as summon more Spartoi."

"Psst, Kazuma, Kazuma," Aqua whispered. "What's a Spartoi?"

"The skeletons," Kazuma whispered back. "Have you not been paying attention at all?"

"Why do they call a skeleton a Spartoi? That's stupid."

"I don't know, I didn't come up with the names."

"…and that's our battle strategy for Udaeus," Finn said as he wrapped up his speech. "Any questions?"

Megumin raised her hand.

"Yes?" Finn asked.

"When can I blow it up?"

"If you unleash your magic in the throne room, we could all be caught within the blast radius," Riveria sternly said. "As I mentioned before, versatility is important in the dungeon."

"Tch." Megumin made a face. "You're just jealous that my Explosion defeated the last boss."

The calm look on Riveria's face cracked as she held up a trembling fist.

"Oi, Riveria, lass, let's not do this again so soon!"

~0~

The White Palace—despite its name—didn't have anything resembling a royal palace. Despite that, there was no denying that the entire floor was completely unique; there was nothing like it in the floors preceding or succeeding it. As such, many adventuring familias had been caught off guard by it, and the floor was considered a huge difficulty spike that had stopped many due to both the design and the monsters inhabiting it.

The layout of the floor consisted of five circular mazes, all aligned in a row.

Any party that delved into this floor had to find their way through each maze one after the other. What made it especially difficult was that each maze was designed to be an actual labyrinth in its own right that had numerous dead ends. Worse was the fact that this was the realm of the undead—or at least, the fake undead. That meant that there was no need for any kind of food to feed these monsters, leaving the floor empty of any kind of sustenance that adventurers could use to replenish their supplies.

As one could imagine, getting lost here could become a death sentence just from fatigue and starvation.

Luckily, this was mitigated by the fact that the paths leading to the end of each maze had already been mapped out and copies were available from the Guild. However, due to the featureless white walls and constant incursion of undead-themed monsters, it was easy to go off-path and get lost in a place that wasn't recorded. Therefore, figuring out where you were on the map was a difficult task too since the maze consisted of repetitive white walls.

The path forward wasn't the only issue either.

Eventually, all adventuring parties would have to make it back through the five circular mazes to return to the surface. If that wasn't enough, connected to one of the mazes was the Colosseum, a room designed in the style of its namesake where monsters would spawn endlessly to fight each other in an arena. Thankfully, it was an optional area, but when it was first discovered, that wasn't known so it had led to many deaths.

What was worse was that—in the center of the last maze, just before the stairs to the next floor—was the Monster Rex. After facing an arduous journey through several mazes in an environment devoid of food, they would be subjected to a boss monster. It was no wonder that this floor was considered a difficult choke point where countless parties had been wiped out.

Long and confusing mazes, unrelenting mobs, no source of supply replenishment, trap rooms, and a raid boss at the end of it all. Frankly, this floor had all the trademarks of a badly designed dungeon made by overworked developers who had lost all their patience and only desired a sadistic outlet for their stress. The previous floors could not properly prepare anyone for the rage-quit inducing madness that was the White Palace.

This would be the point where Kazuma would have left a scathing review, even though he would have still powered through it by sheer willpower and spite. Nobody liked a vertical difficulty jump after all. Unfortunately, this was real life and not a game. All those party wipes had been people dying. Since undead monsters didn't need to eat, there had been a few corpses—bleached skeletons—still dressed in their armor with their weapons close by. How they could decompose in a sterile zone was another question in itself.

Still, they were collected up by the caravan to be taken to the surface later.

It was grim. It was dark. It was…

"Aqua, stop playing with the skeleton sheep!"

"But it's fun!"

Aqua flared her holy aura out, causing the robe-wearing bony sheep to back away out of fright. Its red glowing eyes were shaking wildly, and its bones were clacking together from its trembling.

Honestly, that was another point in them being imitations. Real undead would have been flocked to Aqua when she unleashed her aura, but these ones were instead scared away. Actually, weren't undead supposed to be immune to fear?

"Just kill it already. You're distracting everyone."

"Fine, fine."

Aqua used a [Turn Undead] spell to dust the monster.

It would even have looked impressive if it weren't for the sulky expression on her face. Though, not many people were paying attention since they were either eating or sitting down. The white walls around them had been slashed up multiple times, preventing monsters from spawning. Though if anyone looked closely, they would see the walls slowly regenerating, inch by inch.

The reason that they were resting up here was because it was just outside the final room of the floor, meaning that after this, they would have to fight the raid boss. By this time, many parties would be exhausted and low on supplies, but that wasn't the case for this expedition, mostly due to Aqua. In fact, it was the reason why there was another change of plans.

Finn clapped his hands, catching everyone's attention. It still took a few moments before the chatter died down enough for him to speak.

"Alright, everyone, we'll be heading inside in a few minutes. Most of you are going to be staying out here." Finn glanced around meaningfully. "I know the journey this time has been more…peaceful than last time, but keep your guard up. Even though we cleared the surrounding areas, there still might be stragglers that we missed or stray monsters wandering in."

Since most of the stronger fighters would be involved in the raid, that left only the lower leveled adventurers to protect the caravan. If it couldn't be properly protected, then just the loss of their supplies to those attacks could prevent them from retreating. Making it back through all those mazes without supplies was very unlikely. If such a thing occurred, then the only way out would be by moving forward and defeating the Monster Rex to enter the safe floor where they could rest and resupply on food. Only then would they be able to head back to the surface safely. That was why it was essential that the caravan be adequately protected.

Kazuma sat up from where he was lounging. It wasn't a particularly comfortable lounge, especially on the hard floors of the cavern, but it wasn't any worse than the previous floors.

"Are we all ready to move out?" Finn asked as he looked around the small crowd of adventurers that would be a part of the vanguard party.

A chorus of agreements echoed back in response.

Most of the members of the vanguard party were veteran adventurers who were level three and above. The only ones that weren't were Ais and the members of his own party. As it turned out, his new little sister was probably just as talented as his other little sister. Even though she had only been an adventurer for a year, she was already deemed strong enough to participate in battles against floor bosses.

Truly, the power of little sisters couldn't be stopped no matter the world.

~o~

Since Finn had said the Monster Rex was located in the throne room, Kazuma had been expecting a room that was similar to the throne room he had visited back in the royal capital in Belzerg. Considering that the White Palace was nothing like a palace at all, he shouldn't have been surprised when it wasn't. Instead of some fancy room with a king's throne in the center of it, the throne room of the White Palace was just an empty clearing surrounded by misty white walls. Though, the massive black skeleton half-sticking out of the ground could probably be thought of as a king. It certainly fit the bill of what he expected a demon king to look like, more so than the actual demon king he had killed back in Belzerg.

The king of the White Palace, Udaeus.

As their party of adventurers approached it, the monster turned its attention to the new arrivals. Its empty eye sockets seemed to burn with an otherworldly light before it let out a chilling battle cry despite lacking vocal cords. The ground around the monster cracked and split as an army of Spartoi began to emerge from the newly created crevices, as if answering the call of their king. Kazuma would be lying if he said that he wasn't a bit scared, but a part of him also couldn't help but feel a bit excited.

It reminded him of his glory days because unlike the other boss raids, this one actually had adds—or additional minions.

"Front-liners, move up!" Finn gave the order. "We'll hold off the soldiers! Mages, start chanting! Aqua, be ready to provide healing when necessary!"

Steel clashed against steel as the adventurers at the front braced themselves. The first wave of the undead crashed against their defenses. Swords clashed against bones while mana crackled through the air as Riveria and her mages began to chant. Kazuma and his group were further in the back since their main priority was ensuring that Aqua could safely provide healing as well as helping to protect the ranged fighters.

"Uwa…" Darkness murmured as she watched the ensuing battle take place. "I want to be a part of the front-line too…"

This hopeless woman…

Blasts of magic speared through the air above the battlefield and crashed down on the army of skeleton soldiers like artillery. Finn and Gareth took advantage of the sudden hole in the enemies' formation and broke through the ranks, straight to Udaeus. Summoned crude spikes erupted from the ground, threatening to spear anyone that was unfortunate enough to be in the way, but the two first-class adventurers were easily able to evade and press forward while the rest of the front-liners held the remaining skeleton soldiers at bay.

The adventurers of the Loki Familia seemed to function like a well-oiled machine.

"Hey, Kazuma," Aqua said as she tapped his shoulder. "Why are we doing all of this?"

"Huh?" He looked over at her incredulously. "What are you talking about?"

Aqua pointed at the group of adventurers currently engaged in a fierce battle with Udaeus even while the mage battalion was readying another salvo.

"Why are we doing this the long way?" Aqua asked, as if bewildered.

"You didn't listen to the plan at all?"

"Of course, I did!" Aqua huffed. "It was something, something, healing."

"You really didn't!"

"Let me show you the quicker way."

Before Kazuma could respond, Aqua stepped forward with her staff and pointed it directly at the King of the White Palace.

"Sacred Turn Undead!"

A blinding flash of light descended onto the battlefield, illuminating the walls of the White Palace with holy light beyond even the spells she had cast prior. It was like someone had dropped a bomb the equivalent to the sun onto the battlefield, brightening away even the darkest corners.

Thousands of bones fell to the ground as skeletal remains, melting away in the light.

Udaeus, the King of the White Palace, fared little better than his army of skeleton soldiers as his body disintegrated. When the light finally faded, the adventurers on the battlefield could only stare at the mesmerizing sight of an empty battlefield illuminated by flickers of light, sterilized of even a single remnant bone fragment. All that was left was a large sphere of a magic stone, falling to the floor and rolling slightly on impact.

Aqua turned toward him with a smug look on her face.

"Look, Kazuma! I did it! Make sure to praise and worship me! I want some expensive wine as a reward when we head back!"

"..."

Not only Kazuma, but the entire raid group was staring blankly at Aqua.

~o~

"It's my mistake," Finn admitted. "The reason I didn't include it in the plan was because I was worried that it would have attracted Udaeus' attention. I hadn't accounted for her spell being so…effective."

Of course, there wasn't much that could be said about that so the matter was soon laid to rest.

After that, they all headed to the next floor which was a safe zone. Even though the fight had been a lot faster and with far fewer casualties than expected, it was decided that they would camp the rest of the day and night. There was no point in skipping past a safe zone after all. The layout of the campsite was the same as it was in the previous safe zone, though the terrain was a little different.

Kazuma and the rest of his team were situated on the opposite side of the camp from the elven group due mostly to their hostility, cooking their food over a campfire. However, even from this distance, he still could still feel their gazes every now and then. When it came to bone-chilling glares, those elves had really mastered that technique…

"Kazuma, could you fix this up for me?" Darkness asked as she approached him with her chestplate in her hands.

As per usual, her armor was scratched up and dented in various places from all the hits she took. The fact that it was expensive gear from Tsubaki didn't even matter to her. If Darkness was wearing it, then it was going to get damaged no matter what due to the nature of how she fought. Maybe she liked all those dented parts poking into her body. In any case, after having traveled with her for so long, he was pretty much used to being her personal repairman.

"Yeah, yeah," Kazuma replied as he grabbed the chestplate from her. "Pass me my hammer. It should be in my bag."

Before Darkness could do so, Ais abruptly stood up from her seat next to him and scurried over to his tent. After a brief moment, she returned with a small hammer in hand and handed it over to him.

Kazuma gingerly took the hammer from her and patted her on the head with his other free hand.

"Thanks, lil sis."

Ais' lips curved into a slight smile in response.

Cute! There was no way his new little sister could be that cute!

On the other side of the campfire, Aqua and Megumin looked on with suspicion before sharing a look with each other.

"Lolicon," they both said at the same time.

"I'm not a lolicon!"

Ais looked up at him with a tilt of her head. "What's a lolicon, big bro?"

"Ah! Look at what you guys did!" Kazuma pointed at them accusingly. "You corrupted her!"

"Us?" Megumin indignantly replied. "Don't you mean yourself!?"

"I would never corrupt a little sister."

Megumin just stared at him with narrowed eyes.

"Right, because you definitely didn't do that with Iris."

Kazuma didn't have a response to that so he just pretended he didn't hear her and started working on fixing up Darkness's armor instead. He took his hammer and activated his [Blacksmith] skill. He brought it down on the chestplate, banging the hammer lightly against the metal. The dented part glowed as he did so, and after hitting each of the spots a few times, the scratches and dents began to clear up. After he was finished with the chestplate, Darkness handed him the rest of her damaged armor to repair as well, such as her gauntlets and greaves.

By the time he was finished repairing all of her gear, before he knew it, a small crowd had gathered around the Eris Familia's campfire. Just like it had been at the last safe zone when he had been cooking, a whole bunch of members of the Loki familia had gathered around and were watching him with a vested interest.

"Oi, lad. How are you doing that?" Gareth asked, disbelief evident in his voice. "You were tapping that tiny hammer into those dents, but it was popping them back out like your hammer had suction. That's not possible!"

Kazuma couldn't help but feel a strong sense of deja vu. Hadn't this exact scenario happened with Asfi and Tsubaki back at her forge?

"It's just one of my skills."

Finn couldn't help but good-naturedly shake his head in disbelief. Just when he thought that the Eris Familia couldn't get even more ridiculous, they always managed to surpass his expectations. At this point, he should just come to expect that instead of being surprised.

"Kazuma, is there a limit when it comes to what you can repair?" Finn asked.

Kazuma thought about that for a moment. Was there a limit? He actually wasn't even sure himself.

"I don't think so," he eventually settled on. "Though I use it mostly to repair Darkness' gear. Aqua and Megumin don't usually damage theirs."

"Usually? I don't remember them wearing much metal."

"I mean like mending their clothes or Megumin's staff with my hammer."

"You can fix fabric and wood with your hammer…?"

"Well…yeah."

True, it didn't make much logical sense, but this was a fantasy world to begin with.

Finn shared a brief look with Gareth, who just laughed and shook his head in response. It was utterly incomprehensible, but then again, a lot of skills and magic gained from falna didn't make sense. However, it still seemed very different from what the blacksmiths they knew could do. The value that the Eris Familia could provide in an expedition only seemed to grow every passing day in his mind. Even just the utility portion seemed like it would be worth it.

"Would you mind doing some repairs for our gear as well? We'll reimburse you after the expedition."

"I don't mind."

~o~

After spending the night in the safe zone, the caravan resumed their journey.

The entire group was in high spirits. After all, unlike previous expeditions, this one had been free of nearly all the standard mishaps. Even the feared Monster Rexes of the various floors that would have always left some casualties were easily cleared without any issues. The few injuries that they actually did receive were fixed up immediately by the near endless amount of healing outputted by Aqua, almost to the point of frivolousness.

What was supposed to be a long and arduous journey turned into an almost leisurely field trip.

The subsequent floors were no different. The only real trouble was when they reached the floors that were like the inside of a volcano. The constant heat necessitated multiple breaks, and they had to be extra careful with the lava rivers, especially since there were monsters in them that would sometimes jump out to attack, splashing molten lava everywhere in the process.

However, even though the monsters did get more difficult, they were still able to pass through the floors without any real casualties. That was why—after another night of camping—Loki Familia soon reached further than they had ever gotten before.

To be more precise, the 49th floor. Their previous record had been the 43rd floor before they had to turn back due to the accumulating injuries and lack of supplies.

This floor—while retaining the huge size of the previous ones—was a flat plain, devoid of all plant life. It was a desolate scenery, made all the more apparent by the reddish brown color that pervaded the sand that covered the ground. However, those two components only comprised the top layer. Underneath the sand, pushed aside by a small sweep of his foot, there was only stone flooring.

In essence, this place—flat in all the ways that mattered—was the worst for them since it was a battlefield specifically tailored for the Monster Rex that was stationed further ahead. From the records from Zeus and Hera's expeditions, simply approaching the monster would be a trial in and of itself.

And that was because…

Kazuma leaped to the side, getting behind a large rock, just before a large laser beam scythed through the spot that he had once been standing on.

"How is it, Kazuma?!" The shout was from Aqua who was hidden behind another rock much farther behind him, along with the rest of the participating expedition.

"How is it, my foot! Why don't you come up here and find out?!"

A shiver went down his spine as Kazuma looked at the trench that the laser beam had burnt into the ground. It wasn't even like a straight shot; it was more like a beam that had been aimed at the ground and then dragged upward, like the slash of a rising blade. Even though the beam had less than a second of contact with the ground, it was enough to burn over a foot deep into the floor.

There were even signs of glass being formed from the superheated sand.

If he had been struck by the laser beam which was wider than three people standing together, he doubted if there would even be any piece left of him afterward. That was his preliminary evaluation, but it wasn't something that he was willing to test any further. In fact, he was already prepared to dodge again in case another beam came at the rock he was hiding behind.

However, oddly enough, there was no follow-up attack.

Peaking out, Kazuma saw that the creature—a massive black monstrosity with a single slit-pupiled red eye—was aimlessly roaming around again as if it had lost interest. Was it dumb enough that he just needed to get out of sight to lose its aggro?

The Monster Rex, Balor, was towering in size, reminding him of Godzilla. However, the size wasn't too much different from the other raid bosses that he had encountered. It had an alien yet humanoid upper half, dark ashen skin wrapped over muscle, bone, and exoskeleton. Bony spikes portruded from its head and neck. The arms themselves didn't seem that sharp, however, the two claws at the end of those oversized arms seemed to be more than sharp enough to compensate.

The bottom half of the monster, however, was much different.

Instead of bipedal legs, it was more like a centipede's body, though far chubbier and with multitudes upon multitudes of short legs. Each leg started with flesh, but halfway down, they became bony spikes. Even just getting stepped on by one of those pointy tips would be enough for a person—or body part—to be crushed into paste.

All in all, the entire amalgamation looked similar to a giant spider woman, except for being seemingly genderless and a nightmare version of it that was in no way arousing at all. In fact, a person facing that would be more liable to piss their own pants. Not him, personally, but potentially someone else.

"Kazuma, they said to come back already!" Aqua's loud voice interrupted his observation and analysis session. "Are you stalling because you wet your pants a little? Trust me, we don't care; we won't laugh!"

"I didn't! And that was only one time! One time!" Kazuma shouted back, aggravated. Besides, that was back in Belzerg, ages ago.

Despite his aggravation, he carefully made his way back to the rest of the group, keeping low and using the large rocks to keep out of sight. Based on his observation, it was strange how the field was set up for this boss battle. Why was it strange? Because it was pretty much like a video game.

The large rocks ensured that there was a way for players to actually get within melee range of the boss. If there was no cover available, it would have been more advantageous to the monster. There would be no way to avoid a laser turret if it was a completely empty plain. At that point, it would just be a long-ranged sniper battle, one in which the raid boss would obviously outdo almost all challengers.

After all, it seemed shooting a laser was much faster than casting a spell.

There were pebbles and small rocks littering the field, but they had the same texture and appearance as the larger rocks. That meant that these large rocks had been shattered before. However, like all the environmental objects on the earlier floors, they would eventually be regenerated by the dungeon. Still, there should have been far more pebbles around here if the boss kept walking through these large rocks on its usual patrol route, especially since few parties could actually reach this far.

That meant that the boss' patrol path—when not in combat—could only be on the empty areas devoid of these large rocks.

That meant they could use the large rocks to approach, but they wouldn't be useful during the fight since the rocks couldn't block the attacks all that well, seeing how the pebbles on the ground hadn't survived that laser beam that was shot at him. Still, they could be useful for breaking line of sight and rotating aggro.

When Kazuma made it back to the group, he relayed his observations and thoughts.

"...or at least, that's what I think." Kazuma looked around at the group in question. Besides his own party members, the ones participating in this battle were actually not as numerous as the times before. Finn, Gareth, and Riveria were the most notable ones, though there were only less than twenty more besides them.

Not that he could actually remember their names or anything.

Sure, they had been introduced, and they shared some meals and conversations together, but that was more on the level of acquaintances than friends. After the expedition, it was unlikely that they would hang out so it wasn't like it was necessary to remember them. Besides, even if they actually did hang out later, he could always learn their names then. After all, he was well-versed in pretending to know people.

'Hey, hey! Do you remember me? We were in elementary school together!'

'Uhh, yeah, of course, I do. You were in, uh, the seat near me.'

'...you don't, do you?'

'Shut up. I won't fall for that scam! You can't borrow any money from me!'

Indeed, he knew full well how to deal with such people. Shaking his head lightly, Kazuma turned his attention back to the group that was mostly silent. That was because most of their eyes were now on Finn who had taken a thinking pose with furrowed brows. It was a few more moments before the leader of Loki Familia finally spoke.

"We'll be able to engage the Monster Rex, but retreating will be a problem." Finn looked troubled. "The records that Zeus Familia left didn't include anything about that. If the battle is too difficult and we can't back out, then we'll be wiped out."

Kazuma unconsciously nodded.

The reason he went to scout out the monster's firing range was because those records hadn't been filled out well. All it said was that the range was "very far." What in the world did "very far" mean? If this was modern times, they would at least have an estimate in meters or kilometers. They could at least do that for the people who had to suffer who came afterward!

Seriously. Despite this being a fantasy world, it somehow had the metric system. They just changed the name; meter was meder and kilometer was kirlo. The measurement for each was exactly the same, as if whoever made this game-like world was too lazy to make their own measurement system and just renamed it to make it seem original at first glance.

"Gareth." Finn turned to him and nodded his head toward the burnt trench. "Do you think you can handle that?"

"Won't know 'til I do it."

"Hm." Finn looked conflicted. "To be honest, we aren't prepared for this."

"It would be best to end the expedition here then," Riveria commented.

Indeed, the plan had been to simply reach the 44th floor or possibly to the 45th floor. The fact that they had made it straight to the 49th floor without any significant casualties or loss of supplies was nothing short of a miracle. Of course, they all knew who this miracle could be attributed to.

Their eyes naturally turned toward Kazuma's group.

"...what are you looking at us for?" Megumin asked suspiciously, furrowing her brow while staring defiantly back at them.

"Kazuma, did you really not pee your pants?" Aqua, instead of listening to the conversation, was staring down at Kazuma's pants with an intense gaze.

"For the last time, I didn't!"

"Even just a little on the inside?"

"No!" Kazuma was about to say more before he noticed that all eyes were on them. He quickly prodded Aqua with his elbow, prompting her to look at him in annoyance.

"Hey, stop elbowing me!"

"Can't you get the hint, you…" Kazuma quickly cut himself off before turning his gaze to Finn. "Yes?"

"Just wanted to know your opinion on whether we should fight or leave," Finn said.

"We're already here, aren't we? Might as well give it a shot."

"But what if we need to retreat? It'll be hard to escape."

"Just keep Megumin on backup then," Kazuma replied nonchalantly. "If we need to flee, she can just blow it up. While it might not kill it, it probably won't be in any state to chase after us, and there'll be plenty of smoke to cover our retreat. Besides, if the worst comes to worst, I can just stay behind with a tank and then teleport us out after everyone escapes."

"Tank?" Finn asked, seeking clarification.

"Like Gareth or Darkness. Somebody who can block the boss for a while."

"Hmm…" Riveria tentatively nodded. "It might work."

"Aye, sounds good enough," Gareth said gruffly.

"Any objections?" Finn looked around, but nobody spoke up. Nodding in finality, he said, "Then let's give it a try. We've done well so far."

~o~

"I don't want to die!"

"Help me!"

"Stay strong!"

"Oh my goddess! It knocked out Riveria!"

"Follow Finn's commands, and we'll succeed. Stand firm!"

"My arrows are bouncing off its scales!"

Kazuma watched with dull eyes at the familiar scene. Of course, everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

Balor was firing off laser beams from its eye indiscriminately like Mechagodzilla while the members of Loki Familia were scrambling below to avoid getting hit. Aqua was being princess carried around by Gareth, frantically healing those who had gotten hurt. Darkness was standing right in front of the raid boss, trying to get its attention.

As for Megumin…

The explosion mage was peeking out from behind a rock far behind the frontlines, staring at him with shining eyes that silently pleaded with him.

Indeed, everything was a complete mess. Trying to join in now would only be contributing to the growing chaos. He turned his gaze to the leader of the expedition, Finn, who was tending to Riveria ever since the latter had gotten shot while casting her spell. Or rather, the diminutive leader had stopped his first aid and was now slinging the tall elf over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes, despite her being far larger than him. In fact, the tip of her fingers and shoes were grazing along the ground.

"Retreat!" Finn's loud voice rose above the cacophony of noise, and the members of Loki Familia were quick to follow the order.

Kazuma silently raised his hand and signaled Megumin.

"EXPLOSION!"

~o~

Authors' Note:

Icura: I had been stuck behind writer's block for the past three months. It was weird; I couldn't write for any story. Couldn't even write new ideas. Basically, any writing at all. It felt like I forgot how to add and subtract, counting out numbers using my fingers instead. I'm not sure why it happened, but it was a frustrating and stressful time. I am not even sure if I am really out of it or if this is a false hope like a few other times.

This chapter—made before, during, and after (maybe after) this period of time—was a mess, but I did what I could. I actually did the description of White Palace three times in three different spots so I had to remove two of them. There were a bunch of things like that.

SFX: Me? I've just been lazy, but I'm trying to get back into it.

Edit 5/30: Corrected from mouth laser beam to eye laser beam.