ch1-ch20 · 020-ch20
Chapter 20: Minotaur
I enter the 『10th Floor Gate』.
The boss floor is a grassland area.
Not a single tree grows here.
Just weed-like grass and unnaturally flat earth.
Looking behind me, the 『9th Floor Gate』 I came through has turned dark red.
The gate... the 『10th Floor Gate』 on the 9th floor should also be dark red by now.
Normally the gates are shadow-black, but they turn dark red when someone is in the boss floor.
When the maximum of 5 people move to the boss floor, or 1 minute passes, the boss randomly spawns somewhere on the floor.
At the same time, the 『10th Floor Gate』 on the 9th floor returns to black, and another party can move to a different boss floor.
I don't know how many exist at maximum, but it's been confirmed that multiple boss floors exist.
"[Gate]."
I begin my experiment.
The boss hasn't spawned yet.
The 'Left Gate' appears without any problems.
I push my left hand through it.
So far, so good as planned.
For now, I'll dismiss the 'Left Gate'.
...About 5 minutes should have passed now.
There it is.
A giant blue figure in the distance.
A Minotaur.
Fortunately, there's some distance between us.
"[Gate]."
I call forth the 'Left Gate'.
...It appeared.
My left hand passes through.
I pass my entire body through.
A familiar tree.
This is my usual spot on the 2nd floor.
Just in case, I'll test if it's okay to dismiss it.
(Disappear already.)
Please come back.
"[Gate]."
From the 2nd floor, it's the 'Right Gate'.
My right hand passes through.
I slowly pass my entire body through.
I made it back.
It's there.
The Minotaur is in the same place.
I think it's safe to say I returned to the same boss floor.
Success.
This skill is insane.
There's so much I want to test, like whether I can get 6 or more people into a boss area, but this feels too dangerous.
This is enough. I can go back and forth. That's good enough.
The Minotaur notices me.
Like a proper boss, it slowly walks toward me.
First, I need to do something about this guy.
"What a huge axe."
If I get hit in the head, it could be one-shot.
I'm wearing my helmet properly, but I should be careful about my head at least.
It's fine.
I can escape anytime with [Gate].
I've got some mental breathing room now.
The Minotaur comes right up to me and stops.
Then it raises its axe high.
As it raises its axe, I shift my front foot back, changing my stance to mirror its.
This reminds me of a boxing switch.
In boxing, you move your back foot forward to close distance, but here I'm moving my front foot back to create distance.
(This is about range too.)
An axe gripped in both hands comes swinging straight down from above.
It's fine.
It won't hit me.
The axe stabbed into the ground just a few centimeters in front of my toes.
Almost simultaneously, I thrust forward.
Toward the heart, as usual.
(Too shallow?)
It pierced the chest as aimed, but stopped at the tip, about 15 centimeters in.
I immediately pull out and create distance.
Then I reset my stance and maintain range.
No matter how thick a Minotaur's chest plate is, 15 centimeters should be a fatal wound.
But boss monsters have far more HP than regular monsters.
The reality of a wound reaching the heart versus the illusion of HP.
These are clashing inside the Minotaur.
Blood continues to flow from the wound.
Its HP should be decreasing too.
But it moves.
It roars and raises its axe again.
It's fine.
This was expected too.
This time, I'll play the decoy.
It swings its axe around wildly left and right.
When it attacks vertically with its axe stabbing into the ground just like before, I counter.
I repeat this four times.
On the fifth thrust, the Minotaur drops its axe and stops moving.
At the same time, my [Status] opens automatically.
'Available Jobs'
[Warrior]
[Mage]
[Scout]
[Spearman]
[Short Spearman]
[Long Spearman]
[Javelineer]
[Staff User]
[Club User]
[Acrobat]
[Knight]
[Fighter]
If you don't choose a job and move to the next floor, it gets postponed.
In that case, you can choose by defeating the 10th floor boss again.
I'll choose not to select one this time either and come back again.
The Minotaur's axe and helmet were each worth about 2000 yen, I think, but I still have time, and considering what comes next, I can't pick them up.
I'll just take out the magic stone and head to the 11th floor, then immediately return to the 9th floor.
The 11th floor is dangerous without a job.
Since my level is still 9, I'll spend the rest of today leveling up on the 9th floor.
Several times along the way, adventurer parties came out of the 『10th Floor Gate』 and headed toward the 『8th Floor Gate』.
As expected, they seem to head back when it gets dark.
Conversely, no parties were entering the 『10th Floor Gate』.
While hunting monsters in groups of five, I occasionally moved to boss floors to try my hand against Minotaurs too.
Later, after defeating a Minotaur for the third time and reaching level 10, I decided to head back.
"[Gate]"
Tomorrow I plan to defeat the Minotaur to get a job, so I'll leave the 'Left Gate' set up on the 9th floor.
"Welcome baaack~ I heard everything from Shiraishi-san. So you're Watanabe-san, huh? My, my. What a pain, riiight~?"
When I returned to the Association facility, the gyaru receptionist welcomed me with great delight.
"Shiraishi?"
I look at the male staff member at the next window.
"Shiraishi is the afternoon shift staff, the one who was sitting here. By the way, I'm Hiramatsu."
He told me.
I wish he'd told me the gyaru's name too.
"Oh, you bought a backpack, huh? Watanabe-san has weekends off, so let's fill that backpack up over the weekend and make her happy."
I don't know what Shiraishi told her, but this seems connected to the story about the favorite girl from the day before yesterday.
The gyaru doesn't seem like she'll cash anything in, so I'll leave my weapon and backpack with her and head home quickly.
"Get strong quickly and go defeat Watanabe-san, okay? Kyaah~."
What does she mean, "defeat"?
Is she talking about that mock battle we did here?
That was just one time, right? ...What happens if I win?