Rank 1

Arta Secret Base.

The story of this place is quite simple.

To briefly sum it up…

Story-wise, the Arta family had built a secret base near the island, at the spot closest to the “Core of the Earth,” in order to seal away the “beast.”

Using an object known as a ‘Divine Artifact’, the Arta family harnessed the power of the Earth’s Core to seal the beast, and that duty has been passed down through generations to the present day.

However, the problem was that the secret base had stopped functioning.

[A monster has invaded the laboratory where the divine artifact is! It has to be the scheme of someone who wants the world to end!]

If you choose the right dialogue options and progress the conversation, Arta would say something like that and give the player the first quest.

The goal of the quest was to defeat the monster that had damaged the laboratory and restart the divine artifact.

[I’m sorry, but because of that thing, the elevator broke down. You’ll have to climb down the emergency ladder for several hours. I’ll open the entrance for you right away!]

[Be careful! Now that the core is unstable, the moment you step inside, all your authorities (skills) will disappear! Though, of course, the same will apply for that Serpent of the End!]

However, when I actually met the NPC in person, they turned out to be rather unpleasant. Maybe it was because I hadn’t followed the normal route. Whatever the reason, the moment we entered the research station, they started using dialogue options that had never appeared in the game.

[…What is your name?]

After climbing down the ladder for nearly two hours, Arta’s voice came through the speaker installed in the laboratory.

[…It is Bjorn Jandel.]

[Is that a famous name in the empire?]

[Well, to some extent.]

It was actually Raphdonia, not the empire, but it was true that my name was famous, so it was not exactly a lie.

‘This might be the first time they’ve asked my name while progressing through this chapter…’

Well, I suppose this is just another side effect of the reality patch.

After we had introduced ourselves, Arta didn’t say much else, so I slowly led the squad members into the lab.

Beeeep—! Beeeep—! Beeeep—!

An ominous siren blared on repeat inside the lab, its beeping amplified by the dome-shaped structure and the vast, empty space within.

“Where is Snictura…?” someone muttered anxiously. Everyone had entered with their guard raised, but when they couldn’t spot our target, they grew even more tense.

I couldn’t blame them. Whether it was a pure physical fight or not, Level 1 was still Level 1.

“Raven, Marone, you two go stand over there,” I ordered, sending the three members who would be useless in this fight to a corner.

And then…

Step. Step.

I made my way to the center of the laboratory, where I found a sinkhole so deep its bottom couldn’t be seen. As I drew closer, fierce winds rushed in from behind me. It was the Core pulling our mana and soul power down into the hole.

Whoooooosh—!

“Are you ready?”

At my question, the members gave a slight nod and took their positions.

It looks like everyone is ready, so…

[Survivors of the ruined empire, the thing you see in front of you—]

[I know. I just have to press this, right?]

I pressed the button on one of the suspicious machines in the laboratory and the wind that had been raging through the room stopped completely.

And then…

[Command input complete.]

[Emergency restoration has been activated.]

The sirens cut off, and the ancient-language announcements went silent as well, only to resume soon after at a much quicker rhythm.

[Restoration failed.]

[Unidentified object detected inside the connector.]

[Forced ejection will now proceed.]

With that announcement, a powerful gust of wind shot out of the hole.

[Forced ejection complete.]

Like a parasite flushed from its hiding place, a snake was forced out into the open.

“Prepare for battle.”

It was the Level 1 monster, Snictura.

***

The Serpent of the End, Snictura, was one of the dozens of monsters that appeared on the tenth floor.

In fact, even when I played the game, I usually avoided this thing whenever I encountered it on the tenth floor.

The tenth floor was already hellishly difficult, so although some battles were unavoidable, my usual strategy for clearing it was to avoid as many fights as possible while heading toward the Gate of the Abyss.

Well, no matter what, there were always times when battle became unavoidable, but anyway.

‘Seeing it here like this, it’s kind of cute.’

We weren’t on the unrestricted tenth floor where it normally fought, but inside a small colosseum where every active skill was sealed. In this place, Snictura was nothing more than a small, cute snake.

Even so, with just its head raised, it was well over three metres tall.

As soon as Snictura was forced out of the hole, it froze and stared at us. And judging by the way its three-pronged tail kept striking the ground, it seemed to really dislike this situation.

“…It’s smaller than I heard.”

Of course it did. On the tenth floor, Snictura was a troublesome enemy capable of changing not just its size, but its entire form. Here, however, it couldn’t use its active skill, Shapeshift.

If Shapeshift had worked with Union, it could have become a superior version of Giantization…

Maybe that was why I rarely bothered hunting this monster. Even though it’s a Level1 monster, it possessed abilities totally unsuitable for a Shield Barbarian.

[Unidentified object ejection complete.]

[Closing hatch—]

[Failure, failure, failure, failure.]

Ugh, so noisy.

“What is it repeating?”

Oh, that?

“It’s just telling us to fight,” I said, just as Snictura lunged toward us.

[Khaaaaaaak~!]

With fangs as large as longswords, it looked far too dangerous and powerful for us to fight while our active skills were sealed.

But…

‘Active skills aren’t everything.’

Defense successful.

[Aegis’s Barrier absorbs all damage.]

For fangs of this size, I can counter them with “Aegis’s Barrier.”

This shield is an overpowered item that can stop almost anything, as long as the attack is small enough to block.

[…Khaak!]

Snictura recoiled, seemingly startled that I had blocked its attack so easily. Then it spat a glob of mucus at us.

Tap.

I need to dodge this.

Sizzleee!

The moment I dodged, the spot where the mucus had landed began to corrode rapidly. This was the effect of its passive skill, [Body of Ten Thousand Poisons]

To put it simply, it gave the monster immunity to all poisons, applied the strongest possible Poison effect to every fluid in its body, and increased all poison damage it dealt. It was also the graduation essence for the Acid Fluid build I had used before.

Swoooosh!

After I avoided its spit attack, Snictura swung its heavy tail at me.

Whoops. I don’t think I can block this one too. Maybe I could if I were in Giantization, but right now, I’m too small to land a perfect guard against that tail.

‘It’s too late to dodge.’

Nevertheless, I raised my shield to cover my upper body and reduce the impact as much as possible. Needless to say, that did not stop me from being slammed into the wall.

Boooom—!

My body was pushed back against the wall while I was still holding the shield. There was nothing I could do about that.

A Level 1 monster’s base stats were basically a cheat on their own. No matter what combination I put together, there was no way to defeat a Level 1 monster in Dungeon and Stone through raw stats alone.

Would it be different in 100x mode? Hmm, maybe if I gathered around thirty essences or so…

But since it was a meaningless fantasy, I stopped thinking about it.

“Bethelraaaaaaaa!!”

To pull my focus back to the battle, I let out a battle cry and stepped back into formation with the vanguard. Aynar, Parav, and Kaislan were holding the front line alongside me.

“What… kind of monster is…”

“Ugh…! Bjorrn! Without abilities, I don’t know what to do!”

Because of the overwhelming difference in raw stats, none of them could properly keep up. However, I wasn’t too worried.

After all, this wasn’t their first time fighting a monster. They would adapt to the snake soon enough. Besides, with Snictura’s active skills sealed, its attack patterns were straightforward.

Whoosh—!

As the front line fought desperately, the backline tried to support them with ranged attacks, but almost none of it managed to hurt the monster.

“Jandel… Is it even possible to kill this thing?”

Kaislan began to question the fight after seeing that neither arrows nor swords could leave even a scratch.

Honestly, he wasn’t wrong. Do you know how absurd a Level 1 monster’s raw stats are?

With our active abilities sealed, there was no way we could deal enough damage to kill that creature through passive abilities alone.

‘It should be about time…’

Just then, a voice spoke.

[…I will begin restoration.]

Instead of the narration that had been playing all this time, Arta’s voice rang out through the speaker.

And then…

[Manual restoration requires assistance from inside the laboratory. I will indicate it by controlling the lights, so—]

[I just have to press the button that lights up, right?]

[…Correct.]

After ending the conversation, I instructed the members at the back to press the buttons when the equipment powered on.

[Emergency stabilization module has been activated.]

[1%, 2%, 3%, 4%…]

[Error occurred.]

[Repair of the mana core is required.]

The announcements continued at regular intervals as we worked through the buttons, keeping us updated on our progress. But before one task could even be completed, another problem would appear, forcing us to press yet another button and fix something else.

And after sometime had passed…

“Kaislan, fall back and heal yourself with a potion.”

“I’m still fine—”

“That’s an order,” I said firmly, my eyes landing on the bones visible beneath his melted skin.

After more than two hours of fighting, we started rotating members out to recover before sending them back into battle. We repeated that cycle several times.

[Emergency stabilization process complete.]

Vwoooooom!

Something began to whir as it powered up, and the dark interior of the testing site suddenly flooded with light, marking the end of the long, grueling first phase.

[Field Effect — Destroyed Core Laboratory has changed.]

[The fixed value of characters’ resources changes according to distance.]

[Your fixed resource amount will now vary depending on your distance.]

That was also the signal that the raid had officially started.

Our backline could finally start to recover MP. It wouldn’t be much — only about ten per cent at most. Nevertheless, the most important part of this raid was still the backline, and we were not the only ones who could regain MP by moving further away from the hole. If that damn snake managed to crawl out completely, it would be able to use its skills too.

“Listen up! From now on, we absolutely cannot be pushed back!”

I shouted toward the frontline again. “Parav! Fall back!”

Sven Parav, our only healer, moved to the rear and began fulfilling his role as a priest.

[Erwin Fornacci di Tersia has cast Elementalization.]

I also had Erwin use Elementalization instead of attacking. Since our opponent’s attribute was poison, choosing earth was the obvious move.

[Fire-element damage has been reduced by half. Water-element damage has been doubled.]

[Poison Immunity has been granted.]

[Strong modifier added to destructive actions when using blunt weapons.]

[Physical Resistance massively increases…]

With the poison issue handled, I could take a much more active role in the fight. The added knockback effect also made things considerably safer.

We just have to chip away at its health and handle its berserk phase at the end, I thought, planning to keep progressing through the raid slowly and steadily.

But then…

“Huh?”

Snictura’s body abruptly began turning red.

[Snictura has cast Seed of Destruction.]

That meant only one thing.

[A random character within range will take unavoidable damage.]

Something had gone wrong.

[—’s health has reached 0%. Countdown beginning.]

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