Skull Island (3)

The moment the cave door shut behind us and we were cut off from the outside world, the candles fixed to the walls lit up all at once, widening our field of vision. Even so, the vast cave was far from fully lit. Beyond ten metres, the passage was still shrouded in darkness.

“Light.”

Raven shot a light orb into the darkness and wore a fascinated expression.

“Oh, it really doesn’t light up. Seeing as the mana is maintained, the spell hasn’t been canceled, but…”

She seemed curious about how the darkness worked, but I couldn’t bring myself to care much. I wasn’t a scholar. I was a player. Honestly, the idea of trying to figure out the logic behind a field effect felt kind of ridiculous to me.

[The character has entered a special region.]

[Field Effect – Catacoma applied.]

[Wound Aggravation (High) is inflicted.]

[Upon defeating a monster within this region, one random stat will decrease by 1.]

[The countdown is removed.]

“Only the light of the dead vanquishes the darkness.”

Inside this cave, neither light magic nor torches could illuminate the darkness. Because of the keyword ‘light of the dead,’ people had tried using black magic or similar items, but all had failed.

Therefore, the only things that could act as light sources were the torches on the walls. Of course, those torches didn’t extend all the way to the other side, but it wasn’t a problem.

After all, the monsters were starting to appear.

“Oh! There’s a skull-headed one!”

“Wait! Hold on, Aynar.”

I quickly stopped Aynar as she tried to rush toward the first monster she spotted.

“Hm? Why, Bjorn?”

“From now on, Ilya Adnus will kill every monster that appears.”

Aynar looked confused, but the Guild Master immediately understood what was happening and smirked.

“So you’re planning to use me as a sacrifice.”

“What sacrifice? You’re not dying.”

“…Very well. I’ll gladly take on the burden.”

We both knew what was going on. Was he deliberately making a show of “sacrificing” himself just to highlight how much credit he deserved?

Either way, Ilya Adnus drew his sword.

“A sword…? I thought he was an archer?”

“Well, he uses a bow too. He’s more of a hybrid. His skill set isn’t heavily dependent on weapon type.”

Slash—!

Advancing into the darkness, the guild master cut down four monsters in a single stroke.

Nothing surprising.

The average rank of the mobs here was around 7.

Killing them wasn’t difficult.

The problem was the price that came after.

「Ilya Adnus’s Natural Regeneration decreases by 1.」
「Ilya Adnus’s Strength decreases by 1.」
「Ilya Adnus’s Agility decreases by 1.」
「Ilya Adnus’s Fire Resistance decreases by 1…」

In this place, the more mobs you kill, the more your stats decrease. However, we couldn’t just walk past without killing them either.

Fwoosh—!

“Oh! Another torch just lit up over there!”

Catacoma was a space designed so that you could only move forward by continuously killing monsters.

“I don’t know about the rest of you, but this is definitely starting to wear on me. Why did my strength have to drop right from the start?” Adnus huffed

“Huh? What does that mean?”

It was Raven who answered Aynar’s question.

“Here, every time you kill a monster, a random sub-stat decreases.”

“Sub-stat…? What’s that?”

“The things gained from essences and the achievements of Gabrielius: Things like strength, agility and resistances.”

“…What? Those decrease?”

Aynar recoiled in horror.

The guild master smiled bitterly in return.

“Even so, someone has to bear the burden.”

“…I respect you, Adnus! To endure that for your comrades—you’re a true warrior!”

“…Haha. Thank you.”

To me, it felt like a bit of a farce.

What sacrifice? It’s not even permanent.

Once you leave this area, all the penalties are removed at once.

Still—

“You should prepare yourself mentally. From what I’ve heard, everyone who’s been here says it’s an experience they never want to go through again.”

“I can imagine, losing your abilities and becoming practically just an ordinary person must feel incredibly empty.”

“Yes, though as a mage, I wouldn’t really know.”

After listening to their exchange, Misha chimed in with a question.

“Huh? Then shouldn’t we let the mages kill the monsters?”

At Misha’s question, Raven avoided her gaze.

“I heard mages lose mana instead.”

“…Then wouldn’t that make them feel the same?”

Raven fell silent.

It was a rare sight. Misha had actually managed to shut Raven down with logic.

“Enough chitchat, let’s keep moving.”

It was amusing, but as the leader, I couldn’t just stand there and watch them waste time.

「Ilya Adnus’s Fire Resistance decreases by 1.」

「Ilya Adnus’s Luck decreases by 1.」

「Ilya Adnus’s Soul Power decreases by 1…」

The Guild Master, who was cleanly killing four monsters at a time earlier, was now taking them down one by one, struggling much more than before.

There was a reason I hadn’t allowed Auyen to share the role with him. You need a certain level of specs for this strategy to work.

“Bjorn. How about we help him a little…? He looks like he’s struggling. Can’t the Guild Master just take the last hit?”

Aynar suggested it, but I shook my head firmly.

“Just watch.”

It’s better not to have any variables. If we tried to help him land the final blow and made even one mistake, we would lose nearly half the reason we were doing this in the first place. So even if it was rough on him, continuing as we were was the best thing we could do for the Guild Master.

The only thing I could do for him was this—

“Good work. Let’s keep moving.”

Choosing the correct path and minimizing our route.

“Over here.”

Catacoma wasn’t a straight corridor.

It was a maze, similar to the Crystal Cave.

If you got lost, your stats would be ruined before reaching the boss.

Well, it didn’t really matter for expedition-sized groups that could offer many sacrifices.

“There’s a door!”

“Oh! Are we finally here?”

“What’s that guy in front?”

At last, our dungeon crawl brought us to the entrance of the boss room. I quickly ran the numbers in my head. Three hundred seventeen. That was the number of monsters the Guild Master had killed on the way here.

‘It’s over 300, so one of the conditions has been met.’

Without wasting another second, we began our battle against the gatekeeper.
***

The fight against the mid-boss was rather troublesome. If killing it were our only goal, we could have simply had Erwin fire a fully charged arrow, but that would only cause problems later in the next stage.

So…

“…Adnus! Hurry up and kill it!”

“Ugh…! I am trying! But I’ve taken on too many curses…”

“I get it, so hurry!”

We carefully damaged the boss until it had only a sliver of health left, then pinned it in place so the Guild Master could land the final blow.

「Gravekeeper Aleton has been defeated. EXP +6」

「Superior Variant Defeat Bonus. EXP +1」

The Guild Master finally succeeded in landing the killing blow, and the mid-boss turned into light and disappeared. There was a small hidden piece here too.

「The cursed one has defeated the Gravekeeper.」

「The curse of the vengeful spirits does not spread.」

Normally, when the Gravekeeper is defeated, the debuff from the person who has accumulated the strongest curse spreads to the entire party. That is why the standard clearing method is to have everyone kill a similar number of monsters beforehand, so that the curse is shared evenly after the mid-boss is defeated.

That woman didn’t even know the hidden boss existed in the first place. There was no reason to tell her that if one person took all the debuffs, making them the cursed one, and that person defeated the mid-boss, the curse would not spread.

“I don’t see an essence.”

“That’s a shame.”

“What shame? It’s trash anyway.”

“It would still sell, wouldn’t it? It’s rare. It probably has research value too.”

Right. I did remember her being interested in that sort of thing.

“Whatever, let’s just go inside.”

Soon, we passed the defeated gatekeeper and entered the space beyond the open door.

“There’s nothing here?”

“Because there are 12 people here.”

The overall design of the cave was similar to the island. The walls, the ceiling, the floor. Everywhere you looked was made of skulls, and even the candlesticks on the walls were skulls with candles lit inside them.

The boss room had the same kind of terrain design.

The only unusual feature was the enormous monster skull decorating the front wall, far larger than the one we had seen at the cave entrance.

“Ooh! Raven! What kind of monster is that in the back? It looks super strong!”

“Well, I’m not sure. There shouldn’t be many monsters of that size in the labyrinth… Maybe it’s not a monster?”

“Hmm… Then that’s a shame! I was looking forward to trying to kill it in the future!”

We slowly advanced in formation into the vast, open area.

“Erwin, begin.”

“Yes.”

At my command, Erwin closed her eyes and began to focus. I kept my eyes fixed on her.

And then—

「All accumulated energy has been consumed.」

「An unknown energy fills the empty vessel.」

The moment [Chaos Circuit] activated—

“Everyone, leave now.”

At my words, everyone except the preselected members quickly exited the boss room.

Me, Amelia, Aynar, Misha, Erwin, and the guild master were the only members fighting against the boss this time.

Rather than choosing our strongest members, I had picked the ones I wanted to receive the achievement. After all, this wasn’t going to be much of a fight.

Thud.

The moment the remaining members left the room, the door shut and the entire chamber shook as if an earthquake had struck.

Then—

The same howl we had heard when we first entered the cave echoed out.

Dududududung!

A boss with a fairly imposing appearance rose from the pile of skulls covering the floor.

And at the same time—

「Erwin Fornacci di Tercia has used [Focused Fire].」

「Groo….oooh?」

Three phases were skipped in an instant.

***

The official strategy for clearing the Skeleton King was fairly complicated. As the raid dragged on, the soul orb it carried, which served as its HP gauge, would gradually lose power.

At 80% HP, it used an area-wide curse.

At 60%, it summoned mobs.

At 40%, it activated an instant-death attack.

And at 20%, it used an invincibility skill that prevented its HP from dropping any further, entered a recovery state, and gained an even stronger buff.

「The Skeleton King’s soul power is below 20%.」

「The Skeleton King has cast [Soul Absorption]」

However, we skipped the first three phases and moved straight into the fourth.

Of course, just because it was the 4th phase didn’t mean it was difficult. Erwin, who was in a state of infinite MP, didn’t just have [Focused Fire].

[Erwin Fornacci di Tercia has summoned [Decloe, the Spirit King of Darkness].]

Boom! Craaaash!

As Erwin continued pouring out firepower, the Skeleton King’s soul orb drained faster than it could recover.

[The Skeleton King has absorbed all souls.]

[All of the Skeleton King’s authorities are greatly amplified…]

[The Skeleton King’s accumulated soul energy is below 20%.]

[There are no souls left to absorb.]

「The Skeleton King casts [Eternal Liberation].」

The strategy for this pattern was simple.

[The Skeleton King gains immunity to all damage.]

[The accumulated energy in the Skeleton King’s soul orb is rapidly consumed.]

You just had to endure.

And that was my specialty.

「The Skeleton King’s soul orb is nearly empty.」

After rampaging madly for one minute, the Skeleton King finally stopped moving.

It hadn’t been killed yet, but the raid was effectively over.

Even an ordinary person could walk up to a motionless monster and break a glass orb.

Around two minutes had passed since it was summoned.

So, phase four’s regeneration and its berserk mode had each taken about a minute.

“Good job, Erwin. As discussed, Adnus, you take the final blow.”

“I shall.”

The raid concluded as the Guild Master approached the frozen Skeleton King and shattered the soul orb.

[You have defeated the Skeleton King. EXP +7]

[Higher-tier Mutant Kill Bonus. EXP +1]

Unfortunately, no essence dropped, but I didn’t mind too much. The main dish was waiting.

[The Cursed One has defeated the Skeleton King.]

[A piece of an ancient tale has been completed.]

The Skeleton King’s bones dissolved into a cluster of light and scattered, and at the same time, the entire cave began to shake again.

“Ugh… What is this? Wasn’t it over?”

Hearing Aynar mutter that, I smirked and replied.

“Congratulations, Aynar.”

“Huh? What for?”

Instead of answering, I stared at the gigantic monster skull hanging like a decoration on the wall ahead.

“You said earlier that you wanted to try killing it someday, didn’t you?”

It was time to go hunt the hidden boss.

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